Mutant Emotions
by Post U Later
Summary: It's Been A Year Since Loki Tried To Take Over The World Via New York, & Tony's Life Is Finally Starting To Calm Down, But With A Ragtag Team Of Superheros Living With Him He Can't Relax Even For A Second, Or He Might Be Found Out. His Greatest Secret Is At Risk Of Being Revealed: He's A Mutant. & Now That His Powers Are Rebelling Against Him, Tony Must Leave & Visit An Old Friend.
1. 4 Year-Olds Panic Too

**AN~ Hey Y'all, Here's The Story You Guys Voted For The Most! I Know It Took A Long Time, But Here It Is At Last. Better Late Than Never... Right? Well This Is The Story You All Wanted, I'm Going To Make It A Cross Over Since It'll Be Featuring A Lot Of The X-Men In It. I Have Seen All The X-Men Movies, But I Haven't Read The Comics(Same With The Avengers), So I'm Basing Everything Off The Movies & Stuff I Get Off Of The Internet.**

**Okay, I Just Want To Warn You Right Now, There's Not A Lot Of Dialogue In The First 5-7 Chapters. It'll Be A Bit Weird With Only A Bit Of Dialogue, Since I'm So Used To Writing Mainly Dialogue. But I Tried To Squeeze In As Much As I Could. But For The Most Part, The First Few Chapters Are Just Going Though Tony's Life Up Until The Avengers Movie. Well I Hope You Like It! X3**

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**Disclaimer~ Unfortunately I Do NOT Own Tony Stark, Or The Avengers, Or The X-Men Or Anything In This Hopefully Awesome Story. T-T **

**Warning~ Hints Towards Child Neglect(It's Howard Stark, So You Should Kinda Understand What I Mean.) But That's About It… ENJOY! X3**

**Oh & This Has NOT Been Beta'ed, Just Gone Though By Me, But Since I AM Human, I Make Mistakes, So Please Forgive Any Mistakes You See, Unless They're Really Bad & Make It So You Can't Understand What I Mean, In That Case, Please Tell Me. Again: Enjoy! ;3**

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**_Ch.1_**

**_4 Year-Olds Panic Too._**

**_~2,035~_**

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Tony Stark was a smart child: most people would call him a prodigy, and a genius as he got older. At the age of 4 he built a working circuit board. He started college when he was 14 and finished college with several degrees when he was only 17. He faced his parents deaths at 17 also, and took over his father's company when he turned 21. In the next decade after taking over his father's company, Tony Stark became the face of the weapons manufacturing industry, supplying the military with more than half of their weapons and nearly all of its technological devices and upgrades.

Then, everything went to hell with being captured by the Ten Rings in afghanistan, but he powered though, built the Arc Reactor, built the first Iron Man suit, and destroyed the terrorist camp while also escaping for his life. When he got back to the US, he quit making weapons, sending the media into a frenzy. He found out one of his family friends was the man who hired the terrorists to kill him and defeated him, and dealt with the betrayal of the close friend while nearly dying several times in less than 24 hours. He over came being poisoned by the very thing that was keeping him alive. He fought off a deranged criminal looking for revenge for his father and a robot attack by one of his old weapons manufacturing competitors.

In the last year, Tony Stark fought two Demi-Gods, nearly got sliced to pieces in a giant fan type engine that was supposed to be supporting a flying SHIELD base, he fought alien whales, got thrown out of a window in his own tower, _without_ his Iron Man suit, and he saved the world by flying a nuclear missile into outer space and nearly dying in the process.

Though out his life, people have called Tony Stark many things: a genius, a playboy, a menace, a mistake, a buffoon, a billionaire, an alcoholic, an idiot, a philanthropist, a hero, a fake, a merchant of death, but the one thing that no one has ever called Tony Stark, is a mutant. But out of all the things he's been called though out the years, the one thing he hasn't been called, would be the one that held the most truth.

Tony first noticed his strange gift when he was four. He was sitting in the middle of his bed in his room, working on his circuit board when the lights suddenly went out. Frightened by the sudden darkness, Tony flung his half-done circuit board into the air, only realizing what he had done a second too late. He knew that it was going to break the second it hit the floor and that he'd have to start all over. He didn't want to start from the beginning again: it had already taken him nearly a month to get halfway done, and sure, now that he had done it once, it would be easer, but still, he didn't want to start from the beginning.

With out thinking, Tony leaped forward to try and grab his creation before it smashed into the floor. He missed it in the dark. He closed his eyes in grief: his greatest creation, destroyed, smashed and broken before it was even finished. But he never heard it hit the floor. Confused, Tony sat up and swung his legs over the end of his bed. The lights flickered and he saw it, his circuit board. Tony's eyes widened and he scooted back up the bed until his back hit the headboard. The circuit board was floating in the air, just a few inches above the ground. Tony's breathing became erratic and his heart began to beat harder. The lights flickered again, but he couldn't see it over the end of the bed.

There was no way. His circuit board could not be floating. It wasn't possible. It had to have been a trick of the lights flickering. That's it, he'd made a mistake, his eyes had played a trick on him, that's all. Tony's breathing slowly calmed and his heart beat came back down to normal. He slowly and cautiously crawled across his bed to the end. The lights were still out, so Tony couldn't see where the board had landed. It was mid December and the snow storm had probably knocked out the power for the whole neighborhood. Of course, his dad had a generator that could power the entire house for just this type on incident.

Either way, until his dad got the power back on, Tony couldn't see anything. He waited on his bed: laying on his stomach, looking at where he thought his circuit board _should_ be on the ground. Tony waited, the lights flickered again and he was forced to shut his eyes when the board wasn't on the ground. He jerked to a sitting position eyes still closed. What was taking his dad so long to get that generator started? Then the lights came on. Even with his eyes closed, Tony could tell, but he didn't open his eyes. He was scared of what he would see... again. He wasn't so sure his eyes were playing tricks on him anymore. He had see in twice, if it was a trick, it wouldn't happened a second time. Right?

Tony took a deep breath and slowly cracked one of his eyes, then the other. He opened his eyes all the way and his sight landed on the circuit board. The one that was still floating in mid air. Tony took another deep breath, then for good measure, he took another dozen. Slowly, Tony lowered himself down to the ground and he stared at the floating board. He tentatively reacher out his hand and waved it underneath it, then above it, making sure there wasn't anything holding it up. Then, with a slightly shaking hand, Tony tapped the board, but it stayed floating.

After a minute of tapping and observing the hovering object, Tony began to make theories as to why it was able to float by itself, though none of them were plausible. He thought about getting his dad to look at it, but Tony felt that the minute he left the room or took his eyes off it, it'd fall to the ground or disappear and his father wouldn't believe him. Then Tony began to think about if it could move higher than just an inch off the ground, or if that was as high as it could float, and as if it was reading his mind, it moved an inch higher. Tony jumped back in surprise. And after another minute of staring at the circuit board, Tony got an idea. He thought about the board moving higher again, and just like before, it moved another inch upward. And Tony realized it was him that was making the board float.

For the next five minutes, Tony experimented with moving the board up, down, left, right, and across the room. He was getting the hang of it: all he had to do was think to direct it, and he was good at thinking. All he had to do was think about where he wanted it to go, and it would go there. Tony was very smart for being only 4 years old, he understood things most adults wouldn't, and he knew what this type of power was: _telekinesis_, and Tony knew what type of people had this power: _mutants_.

Not many people knew about mutants, they were relatively new to the world, but he had heard his father talk with Obie and government officials about them. And because of that, he knew how people viewed mutants, as _freaks_ and _outcasts_. He knew his father's opinions on mutants, he knew Obie's opinion was very similar to his father's: they both thought that mutants should be experimented on and used for war. Just thinking about what his father would do to him if he were to find out made Tony shudder in fear. He swore he'd never let his father find out. He'd never let Obie find out either, for Tony was absolutely sure that he'd got to howard with the info.

He didn't know how his mother felt about mutants, whether she liked them or hated them: she was an 'unknown,' but he wouldn't let her find out either, for both his and her safety. If Howard found about about Tony being a mutant he'd be furious, and if he found out Tony's mother knew too, and kept it a secret, he would be furious with her. And even if his mother didn't like mutants and ended up hating him, Tony still loved his mother more than anything.

That's when Tony heard the footsteps down the hall. Specifically, the angry footsteps of his father, coming towards his room. He was blessed to have the room at the end of the hall, that way he knew if someone was coming to his room or the bathroom, which was the door right before his. He had just enough time to make the circuit board land in his hands right before his father burst into the room.

"So this is where you were?" Howard says with a hind of anger and disgust. "Your mother is looking for you. Don't worry her. She's in the kitchen. Dinner's ready."

"Yes Father." Tony said quickly, he couldn't smell the alcohol from across the room, but he could easily see how Howard let the door frame take most of his weight. "I'll be down just as soon as I put this away Father."

Howard shut the door and left without acknowledging him. Tony sagged against his bed, clutching his circuit board to his chest, and after hearing his father's footsteps disappear, he heaved a sigh of relief. Slowly, Tony released the board and made it float a few inches above his hand and made it float over to its spot on the table. Then Tony wondered if he could make anything float, or if it was just the board. Tony looked over at his shoes sitting under the table. He thought that it'd be cool if his shoes could fly too, and they lifted an inch off the floor. Then like he had done with the board, Tony made them fly over to him. And without touching them, Tony tried to make them stay solid in the air as he slipped his feet into them. That was a bit harder, but Tony finally got the hang of it after a few minutes. He tried using his powers to tie his shoelaces, which was much harder and after a few minutes, Tony gave in and tied them by hand. By the time he finished, it had been over ten minutes, and Tony was late to dinner.

As Tony exited his room, he took one look back at his circuit board that lay on the bed side table, he was glad that it hadn't broken, but he was so very glad that he'd found out about this special power. Not simply because he now had this amazing power and gift, but because he had found it without anyone else knowing about it. That he had found out about it by himself and not in front of his father or Obie. Tony sighed again in relief and closed the door to his room. On his way down to dinner Tony thought that he'd need to find a place to practice: his room was to dangerous. His father could walk in any moment, or his mother, or a maid, and everything would go to hell.

Tony walked into the kitchen and saw his mother setting the table for two, that meant that his father had passed out in the ten minutes since he'd told him dinner was ready. _Good_. He thought gleefully. Tony loved the dinners when it was just him and his mother, they were so peaceful. Tony talked with his mother, laughed with his mother, and put all thoughts of his new found power, both good and bad, in the back of his head to sort though later.

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**E/N~ Okay, So What Did You All Think? Slow Start I Know, But I Had To Give It A Background & Tony Would Have SO Realized His Powers At A Young Age If He Had Them. Please Tell Me Your Opinions In A Review... Please? I'll Try To Post A Chapter Every Week, The Days May Vary, Depending On How Much Home Work I Get. **

**Also, Check My Profile For Polls With Questions About The Story, I Want To Make You(The Readers) Happy & Give You What You Want, So Your Opinion Is Valued Highly. Again Thanx For Reading! X3 **


	2. Mother's Are Always There For Their Kids

**A/N~ Hey Everyone, I Know It Hasn't Been A Week, But I Really Wanted To Get This Chapter Out To You, Since You All Are So Excited. I Was Really Happy With The Feedback I Got, & I Agree With Most Of You, Mutant Tony Just Clicks & Make Sense, & There's Not Enough Good Stories Like This Out There, Hence Why I'm Writing This: To Hopefully Add Another Good Mutant Tony Fic To The World. XD **

**I Know This Chapter Is A Wee Bit Shorter Than The First, But I Plan To Average Each Chapter To Be About 2,500-2,700 Words In Length, So They'll Be Getting Longer… Hopefully. ;P**

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**Disclaimer~ It Makes Me Sad To Admit It, But I Don't Own Tony Stark, The Avengers, The X-Men Or Anything In This Story. T-T It Really Does Make Me Tear Up. **

**Warning~ Not Really Anything To Warn You About, There's Actually Some Heartwarming Stuff In Here.**

**Again This Hasn't Been Beta'ed. I Don't Have A Beta, So It's Me, My Spell Check, & My Proofreading Tools On My MacBook. So Again Tell Me If There's Anything Too Horrible In Here. ENJOY! X3 **

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**_Ch.2_**

**_Mother's Are Always There For Their Children._**

**_~1,971~_**

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_Tony loved the dinners when it was just him and his mother, they were so peaceful. Tony talked with his mother, laughed with his mother, and put all thoughts of his new found power, both good and bad, in the back of his head to sort though later. _

It wasn't until Tony was 7 that someone else found out about his telekinesis. He had been practicing in the second shed, the one that no one used. It was far enough away from the mansion that no one would hear him if he mad a little bit of noise, but closes enough that if he needed help, they would hear him yelling.

In the three years since he'd found about his power, Tony had gained significant control over his powers. Yes, _powers_. In that three years, Tony discovered that he had more than one mutant gift. Besides his telekinesis, Tony also had an affinity for electronics. Well, that's what he called it at first, but it was more of a control and absorption of electricity.

Sure Tony could control most things with his telekinesis, but he found out that that was only solids and liquids. Tony couldn't control gasses, he could contain them, but not control them. He could also not control other forms of matter, such as atoms, and cells: he could move a plant across the room, but he couldn't take a singular cell from that plant and make it do what ever he wanted. He couldn't take a singular atom and move it around, he couldn't even grasp an atom. He figured it was simply to small for him to take control of.

Tony's 'electrokinesis' of sorts, allowed him to control the electricity within an object. He could control the flow of the electricity, where it went, how much went where and so on. He could also take the electricity and absorb it, all or some, and use it for what ever he wanted, that included even himself. He could take the electricity from a lightbulb and use it to jump start a CD player. And though it only seemed to happen with lightbulbs, it would make the drained lightbulb useless afterwards. He could also take it and change it into energy and use it to keep himself awake all night. It took a bit of a toll oh his body, seeing as it was still being deprived of sleep, but Tony was a child and didn't need much sleep as it was.

Tony also found that he could direct the energy once it was within his body. He could use it to make himself think faster, or run faster, lift more, raise or lower his body temperature, or, as he found out recently, he could use it to heal minor wounds. Though he would restrain from trying to heal anything larger than a paper cut until he'd practiced enough. He had once tried to heal an inch long cut on his palm he had gotten from a jagged piece of metal and it backfired. Instead of healing the wound, the skin around the cut became inflamed and hot to the touch, so hot it felt like it was being burned. He realized then that it takes a lot of energy to fix damaged cells. According to his calculations, which were rarely wrong, he would need 36 million joules (10,000 watts-hours) to heal something the size of a broken bone, and close to 4 million joules (1,111 watts-hour) to heal his cut hand. He had no where near that much electricity. He wasn't about to steal a hundred 100watt light bulbs to heal himself.

It was a month after Tony's hand had healed, and he was practicing both his telekinesis and electrokinesis in the second shed, that he was discovered. He had taken the energy of two lightbulbs and had sucked them both up, now he was trying to direct that energy to make his telekinesis a bit stronger. He had found that he had limits not only with his electrokinesis, but also with his telekinesis. At the moment, Tony was trying to lift a heavy box that probably weighed around 50 pounds. Tony had never lifted something that heavy before: his maximum had been 38 pounds. In fact, Tony hadn't been able to lift anything above 10 pounds until he'd begun training after he finish his circuit board. He had come to the conclusion that he needed to train to be able to lift heaver things and advance his powers, just like with muscles, he needed to build his strength.

So Tony focused his mind and directed the energy from the two bulbs to his mind and tried to infuse it with his telekinesis. It was working; the box lifted an inch off the ground and then another and another. After a minute it was nearly a foot off the ground he spent the next five minutes moving the box around the room, going fast then slow, doing the routine he had made for himself: move the object up, move it down, diagonal, move the object away from himself slowly until it became a strain on his mind, then do loops, and see how high he can lift it. Tony had been so focused on directing the current and moving the box, he didn't even notice the door behind him open. He also didn't notice the small gasp of shock and the door closing. He did; however, notice the clapping when he set the box down a minute later.

Tony froze in shock and fear. Someone had found out about his secret, he was going to be carted off to some lab to be tested on endlessly and then made to fight and kill. He didn't want that, and he was scared. That is, until he spun around and saw his mother, sitting on the floor, smiling and clapping. She was beaming at him with pride and love.

"M-m-mom?" Tony stuttered in disbelief. "W-what are you d-doing here?"

Tony's mom smiled at him and simply said, "I'm cheering on my beautiful son."

She had seen the obvious shock and fear in her son's eyes, and she knew what it was from. The instant she saw Tony and the flying box, she knew he was a mutant. Mutants had become a big dinner conversation topic, not that what Howard would say could be considered a conversation. He mainly pointed out how disgusting they were and that they were freaks. She had also noticed that Tony would alway withdraw a bit when his father brought mutants up and had her suspicions (She was a mother after all), but she hadn't been 100% sure until she saw that box move.

Tony stood stock still for a second before throwing himself into his mothers waiting arms. Tony started to sob in relief: his father already disliked him, for what he didn't know, and he didn't think he would be able to take it if both of his parents hated him, especially since he loved his mother so much. So the relief he felt for his mother's acceptance felt like someone had just taken a 100 pound weight off his shoulders.

After Tony was done with his sobbing, he and his mother talked. She kissed him on the forehead and asked how long he'd had his power, what his powers were, why he didn't tell her before, etc. And Tony explained what he had learned about his powers in that three year period since that snowy night in December, and his fears of telling anyone that he was a mutant. It turned out better than Tony could have ever imagined. Tony's mom helped him train, though she only knew a little about mutant, just what Howard had said about them. She took him places where things were a bit more difficult to move, and she gave him electronics he could try to manipulate and drain: hair dryers, toasters, fans, phones, TVs, etc. Howard was never the wiser since she had Jarvis, the butler, go get more before Howard came home. Jarvis knew not to ask after she had simply said that Tony was working on something that took a lot of small pieces, but she suspected that Jarvis knew. He was intuitive like that, and he didn't say anything if he did. He was trustworthy.

It wasn't until a few weeks after Tony's 10th birthday that his mother suggested that he try and practice his healing again. It wasn't that she deliberately wanted him to hurt himself to have wounds to heal, it was more on the line he kept getting small cuts or sprains and she didn't like to see him hurt. For his mother, Tony began practicing his healing again.

It took about a 100 watts-hours (360,000 joules) to heal a paper cut, and Tony realized that if he didn't have enough energy to heal a cut completely, he could still heal it partially. He also learned that trying to heal a wound without enough energy, not only made the wound feel like it was burning, but also that it sapped some of his own energy and made him very tied. His mother had been very worried that he'd drain himself trying to heal himself, so she made him promise that he wouldn't do that, and Tony promised he wouldn't endanger himself.

Tony was glad to have his mother on his side and know his secret, it made life so much easier and they became extremely close though bonding over his powers. When he went away to college, he missed her dearly and he called her ever day, even if it was only to leave a message with Jarvis to give to her, and he wrote to her every week. He visited her on long weekends and vacations, or had her come spend the weekend at his apartment. He was determined to stay close to his mother no matter what. She was his everything.

When his parents died a decade after his mother had found him in that shed, Tony was crushed. He couldn't have cared less for his father, but his mother? He couldn't have cared for anyone more than he did her. She was his everything: his inspiration; he'd created Dummy to help her clean up the house after Howard's parties, or when he'd get drunk and trash the place. She was his love: she was the only person who loved him for who he was, everyone else loved him for his father, his money, or didn't love him at all. She was his motivation: she pushed him to better himself, both with his abilities and his education; she'd been the one to talk him into going to college at 14 in the first place. She was his everything: Tony's mother was his whole life, she was there for him when he thought there was no one, she accepted him as her son, even thought he was different and her husband detested his every being, even if the man himself didn't know it. She was the perfect mother, and Tony would have traded all his abilities for her to have not been in that car on that Thursday afternoon.

When Tony lost his mother, he lost his only reason to live. He had come close to ending everything quite a few times, but the one thing that kept him from pulling the trigger, jumping, or swallowing the pills was alway the same thing: his mother. He didn't want to disappoint her, undo all the work she had gone through raising, teaching, and loving him though out his life. He didn't want to lay shame to her. So Tony lived, he never told anyone about his powers, he never used his powers in front of others unless it was an emergency.

He continued to train them, and increase their strength though. Tony lived knowing his mother wouldn't have wanted him to lock the powers away, but to continue using and honing them to perfection. And so, that's just what he did.

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**E/N~ So What'd You Think? I Really Like The Anonymity Of Tony's Mom's Character, She's So Moldable, It's Like A Canvas I Can Paint Whatever I Want On. I Think Of Her As Being Either Similar To Howard Or A Total Contrast To Him. So In This She's A Contrast, Though She's Now Dead, So I Guess It Doesn't Really Matter. *Shrugs* There Will Be More Mentions Of Her, Maybe Even A Flashback Or Two In Later Chapters, But Not Much. **

**Anyway, I Hope You Liked This Chapter. Please Review & Tell Me What You Thought. Also I Put Up A Poll On My Profile In Regards To This Story, So please Check It Out & Tell Me What You Think. XD**


	3. Mutants, Mutants Everywhere

**A/N~ Hey Everyone! I DEcided To Post A Day Early Because I'm Gonna Be Really Busy Tomorrow, With It Being A Holiday & What Not. I Hope You Don't Mind(Like You Really Would Right?). Anyway, Thank You For All The Reviews. & Hey Look, I Got The Word Count Up To 26 Hundred! Longest Chapter Yet By Almost 600 Words! XD**

**OH, & To The Anonymous Reviewer **_**Anon**_**, I'm Glad You're Interested In Tony's Electrokinesis, It Wont Be In This Chapter, But It'll Be In Here Soon. I Think You May Actually Be Surprised In What Direction I Go With It. X3**

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**Disclaimer~ I Do Not Own Tony Stark(Cries My Self To Sleep), Iron Man(Again Cries Myself To Sleep,) The Avengers, The X-Men, Or Anything Recognizable In This. The Taco Joint Is Something I Made Up, But If It's Actually Real, I Don't Own It Ether.**

**Warning~ Um… There's Attempted Robbery & Underage Drinking… It's Tony, What Do You Expect? XD ENJOY!**

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**_Ch.3_**

**_Mutants, Mutants Everywhere._**

**_~2,629~_**

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_He continued to train them, and increase their strength though. Tony lived knowing his mother wouldn't have wanted him to lock the powers away, but to continue using and honing them to perfection. And so, that's just what he did._

After the death of Tony's parent's, Tony quickly finished his schooling, taking it easy and trying to stay out of the media's eyes. He went to New Your and hit the road. Quite literally. Tony was walking down the street to his favorite taco joint: Big Joe's Tacos, and, all of a sudden, he found himself on the ground in an alley way, someone holding him down and pressing against his back painfully. He didn't know who they were, but he had a fair idea of what they wanted: money. He had become pretty famous since his parents deaths. The media was hounding him about taking over Howard's company at such a young age, even though he had decided to let Obadiah deal with it until he was 21. There were just to many legal issues having an underage owner and CEO.

Tony felt something pressing up against the back of his neck and he instantly recognized what it was: a gun. Tony tried to calm himself down, the man wast talking to him, demanding... money.

One for Tony.

The man must have been an idiot because he wasn't wearing a mask or gloves or anything. Tony bet it was just a spur of the moment thing: he saw the teen that was all over the news, who supposedly was running a corporation and had millions of dollars to blow on whatever. Of course some of that was true, he was a teen all over the news, but he didn't have millions, it was more along the line of one million to tide himself over until he turned 21. The man threatened Tony, saying something along the lines of, 'You're a very important person. You're also a very rich person. Now cough up the dough and I wont shoot you.'

Two for Tony.

Tony sighed and told the man he didn't have much money on him, only a hundred or so. This really pissed the man off, he reared his hand back and was about to strike Tony in the head with the butt of his gun when the man suddenly stopped in his tracks. The man looked more confused than Tony. The man was dragged to his feet by an invisible force, his gun hand held high in the sky.

"Well now, this isn't anyway to treat such a celebrity." A calm voice echoed from the other end of the alley way, it was accompanied by a high pitch whirring sound. Tony and the man looked up to see a bald man in a wheelchair roll out of the shadows with a small smile on his face, he was being followed by a young woman, probably only slightly older than Tony himself. She had long straight red hair and her expression wast that of concentration, a look Tony was all to familiar with. Her hand was raised toward the man with the gun and her other hand raised too and then she made a fist and swiftly pulled her hand toward her. The gun came flying toward the two strangers, only to stop a few feet from her and the bald man. Tony instantly recognized the ability as the same as his own. She was a mutant: _telekinesis_.

'_That's right Mr. Stark.'_ A voice sounded in his head. '_We both are._'

Tony's eyes widened as he looked at the man. He had spoken, yet his mouth hand't moved. Tony had read all of his fathers notes on mutants and he had read all about what types of powers they could gain. Tony very quickly came to the conclusion of this man's power: _telepath_.

'_Yes, you are correct. Though I am not the only telepath._' The man said directly in his mind.

At this point, Tony had forgotten all about the man who had tried to rob him. He didn't even know where the man was at the moment. He didn't feel anyone standing over him anymore, so he suspected the woman had moved him from his spot looming over him and to a different location.

'_And you would suspect correct Mr. Stark._' The woman spoke to his mind.

Tony's eyes widened again. Two telepaths? And one with his ability of telekinesis too. Well, he had two powers, so why couldn't other mutants.

"Very wise Mr. Stark." The man in the wheelchair said. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Charles Xavier."

"Thee Charles Xavier?" Tony gawked.

During Tony's college years, Tony had done a lot of research on mutants and Charles' name had come up with nearly ever paper, article, and study he read. Charles had been a major part of diagnosing mutants and helping with their powers. He had also been the one to find the X genome, as he called it: the part of the DNA that makes a mutant a mutant.

"The one and the same." Charles said. "And this is my assistant, Jean Grey."

Tony scrambled to his feet, only barely spotting the man who had tried to mug him laying on the ground, unconscious, against the alley wall, though he paid him no mind. Tony wiped off his clothes and tried to clean himself up a bit.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Stark." Charles said, offering a hand.

"It's an honer to meet you Professor Xavier." Tony said, taking the offered hand and shaking it. "And please, call me Tony, Mr. Stark was my father."

"Of course, Anthony." Charles smiled.

Tony shook his head in amusement before he turned and greeted Jean, but then turned back to the Prof.

"And what do I owe this generously random act of alley way heroism?" Tony asked.

"I was actually on my way to see you about... your gifts, when I heard your thoughts move away from your apartment." Charles explained. "I heard yours, and that mans," He nodded to the unconscious man before continuing. "thoughts. You were in danger and since I wish to speak to you, it would be very inconvenient for you to be hospitalized or hurt. It is also be a terrible tragedy for someone of your age to be attack in such a dreary place."

"Well, thank you for the save." Tony nodded. "I was just going to get some tacos. Want to join me?"

"Oh, I'm not sure if-"

"You did say you wanted to talk to me." Tony pointed out, interrupting the Prof. "And trust me, the only time you will get me sitting still and listening is when I'm eating."

"Alight then," Charles said and turned to Jean. "Jean, could you pull around the car?"

"Of course Professor." Jean said with a nod and turned around and down the alley.

"Shall we go Anthony?" Charles said and motioned toward the alley entrance behind Tony. "I believe this taco place isn't to much father, correct?"

"Yeah, it's just another block." Tony nodded and led the way in silence.

When they got there, Jean was leaning against an older, but still nice car. She motioned for them to go inside and they entered.

"'Ay Tony! Welcome!" A large man in a white apron came up to Tony and hugged him. "Haven't seen you in a while. Want your usual?"

"Yeah that'd be good Joe. Thanks." Tony said, returning the hug slightly. "We'll be sitting in the back corner like usual."

"All right then." Joe turned to Jean and Charles. "You two want anything?"

Jean shook her head, and Charles just asked for some water before they headed to the back of the restaurant. They took their seats and Joe brought over two waters and a beer.

"You're not old enough to drink that." Jean said as Tony popped the metal cap of his beer.

"I'm also not old enough to smoke cigarettes." Tony said, taking a swig of his beer.

"But you don't smoke." Jean retaliated.

"Your point?" Tony asked, sounding like he didn't care. "Did you come to tell me what I can and can't do? Because if you did, you're waisting yours, and my, time."

"No, we didn't come to tell you what to do." Charles smirked. "We actually came to offer you some assistance."

"Assistance?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. "What kind of assistance?"

"With your powers of course." Charles answered.

"I don't need any help with them." Tony said immediately. "I've got them under control."

"Do you now?" Jean said. "Then why was it when we showed up you were about to be knocked out by a moron with a gun, you could have easily taken the gun and saved yourself."

"Why would I do that?" Tony asked flippantly, taking another drink of his beer. "If I'd done that, he would have seen that I was a mutant."

"And?" Jean said, not understanding what he meant.

"I see what you mean." Charles said, getting what Tony was saying without the use of telepathy. "If it were found out that Anthony, the son of Howard Stark was a mutant, Stark Industries' stock would, no doubt, crash."

"Oh." Jean said understanding. "But you could have easily paid him to keep his mouth shut couldn't you?"

"No, just because I'm from a rich family, doesn't mean I have all the money in the world." Tony scoffed. "I have a certain amount of money I can use until I turn 21 and take control of my father's company."

"I see." Jean said, and they sat there in silence for a minute.

"So why do you think I need assistance with my powers?" Tony asked.

"Everyone needs a bit of help with their powers." Charles answered.

"Well, I don't." Tony said. "I've got perfect control of my powers, all of them are in fine, working order."

"And how many of these Powers do you have?" Charles asked.

"Couldn't you just read my mind and find out?" Tony queried.

"I could, but I'd rather not."

"Fine, I have 2... 3 technically, but I prefer to refer to one of them as a sub-power." Tony answered. "I have telekinesis, electrokinesis, and the sub-power is using energy to heal wounds."

Charles eyebrows rose significantly then asked, "And why do you consider healing a sub-power?"

"Because I have to have electricity to do so, and if I didn't have electrokinesis, then I wouldn't be able to do it." Tony said, finishing his beer off. "You see, my electrokinesis is more like an electricity absorption and control. I can take electricity from electrical objects and move the energy around, direct it to different places, or use it for myself."

"And you use this power to heal yourself?" Charles asked, curiously.

"Yes, though it takes a lot of energy to heal, though I have gotten much better at it since I was 7." Tony scoffed at his younger self.

"When did you first learn you had powers?" Charles asked, taking a sip of his water.

"When I was 4. I accidentally levitated a circuit board with telekinesis." Tony answered. "Took me about ten minutes and I knew I was mutant. Though I didn't know until I was about 6 that I had electrokinesis. And it took even longer before I figured out I could heal myself with it."

"Have you ever tried to heal someone else with it?" Jean asked.

"Yes, it's much harder than healing myself, though." Tony answered. "It's very difficult to navigate energy though another body."

"Well, it seems you've got control of your powers." Charles conceded.

Jean looked like she was about to protest, but Charles raised a hand for her not to speak. Joe came over and set down a platter of tacos in front of Tony.

"Here ya are Tony: two tacos with everything but the kitchen sink, a small nacho with bean-less chili, and a bean, cheese and pickle burrito." Joe said with a smile and setting down another beer. "And another beer to wash it down."

"Thanks Joe, looks delicious." Tony said sincerely.

"No problem, you enjoy that and just holler if you need anything." Joe said before turning and left.

Tony dug into his food as soon as Joe turned around. He began on his burrito, then his nachos, then his tacos, all the while, he was steadily ignoring the professor and his assistant.

"I'd like to help you in anyway possible Anthony." Charles said as Tony finished his taco. "You are a mutant and my school is built for mutants to live, and to learn about their powers. I feel that if you stay with us you will gain a better understanding of yourself and your powers."

"I'll think about it." Tony said, digging into his remaining taco, slowly.

When he was done eating, Tony wiped his hands and mouth off with a napkin, and finished his beer. Joe came to clear the table and he and Tony exchanged a few pleasantries, before the large man disappeared with the dishes and came back with bill, slightly less than it should have been: it was his way of caring for Tony, as Tony came to his shop often, and even helped out sometimes when it was busy. But after he gave Tony his bill, more customers started to come it so he had to attend to them.

The three of them sat there quietly, waiting for someone else to talk or leave. Tony suddenly pulled out his wallet and stood.

"All right, I'll come to this school with you." Tony said laying out a few bills one his table. "Though I will have to set down some ground rules first."

"Ground rules?" Charles said as he and Jean followed Tony out of the shop.

"Later Joe, thanks for the food!" Tony called out before answering the professor. "Yes, I will be allowed to leave whenever I want. No one outside the school will know who I am, and if possible, I'd like it if no one inside the school to know who I am at first."

"All is possible." Charles said as they stopped outside the restaurant in front of the BMW Jean had pulled around. "You may leave whenever you want, I will not force you to stay."

"Good."

"Also, we don't talk to people outside of the school, unless they are potential students, so we wouldn't be telling anyone that you are there." Charles continued. "And if you wish, we can give you an alias to use, so only me and Jean would know that you are Tony Stark. If that's what you'd prefer."

"That would be desirable." Tony said. "Though I may tell them after I get to know them better. Oh and I want my own room, preferable away from others or near the garage, if you have one."

"A secluded room near the garage?" Charles nodded. "I will see what I can do about that. May I ask why?"

"I have a habit of using my powers to allow me to stay up all night." Tony explained as they got into the car. "I do this so I can work. My work is usually engineering and similar stuff. So it usually get's pretty loud. It would be beneficial to other, _students_, that I me secluded."

"I will see what I can do." Charles said. "Jean take us to Anthony's apartment. We will pick you up tomorrow morning around 10am to take you to my school. Will that be fine?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Tony said.

"All right, pack what ever you think you'll need, clothes, tools, any of your projects you may want to bring." Charles said and Tony nodded.

Jean, in the driver's seat, started the car and pulled out onto the road and headed towards Tony's apartment. They sat in silence as they drove.

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**E/N~ So What Did You All Think Of That? I Hope You Liked It. I Haven't Watched The X-Men Movies It Years, So I Hope I Didn't Butcher Them Too Bad. Please Tell Me How I Did In A Review! XD**

**Oh & By The Looks Of It, Loki'll Be In This Story As A Main Character(Probably Not A Love Interest As This Isn't A Romance Story), But He Wont Be In It For A LONG TIME, Like, There'll Be A Bit Of Him In The Avengers Chapters, But Then After That Not Awhile, At Least Until Chapter 15, At The Earliest. Just A Warning For Loki-Lovers Reading This. Thank You To Those Who Voted On The Poll. **

**I'll Be Putting Up Another Poll Soon Too, So Check It Out. & Thanx Again! ;3 **


	4. Meeting Real Friends & Family

**A/N~ So Here's The Next Chapter! This One's A Bit Longer Than The Last One, Though Most Of The Chapters Wont Be This Long, Most Shorter, Some Longer, But Not Many... Probably. I Want To Thank Everyone Who Reviewed, They Make Me So Happy! & All The Followers & Favorites I Got? Literally Made Me Squeal In Delight! X3 I Really Hope You Guys Like This Chapter I Worked Really Hard On It. XD**

**Also To The Guest That Reviewed Ch.3, I Just Wanted To Tell You That That Part Wont Be Coming Until Kinda Way Later In The Story. There May Be A Few Parts Through Out The Story Where It Happens, But It's Explained & Not The Part In The Summary. Thanx For The Review! X3 **

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**Disclaimer~ I Don't Own Anything In This. No Seriously I Don't, Nada, Zero, Zip! **

**Warning~ Mention Of Sad Tony, & There's Cussing Courtesy Of Logan. XD ENJOY! XD**

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**_Ch.4_**

**_Meeting Real Friends & Family._**

**_~2,861~_**

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"_All right, pack what ever you think you'll need, clothes, tools, any of your projects you may want to bring." Charles said and Tony nodded. _

_Jean, in the driver's seat, started the car and pulled out onto the road and headed towards Tony's apartment. They sat in silence as they drove._

When Tony arrived at the school, even he was impressed at its size. It was slightly bigger than the Stark mansion, and there was a large 4 car garage off to one side. The lawn was cut perfectly and there wasn't a stone out of place in the gravel roundabout drive way. There was a large back yard and garden, there were even some vegetables and fruits growing along with the flowers and trees. It was a multi-level garden, and Tony thought it was, without a doubt, more beautiful that the small garden back at the Stark mansion his mother had tended to.

When Tony entered the house, lugging his bags behind him, he felt like he was visiting one of his father's rich friends houses, like he had done a few times before. The inside seemed bigger than the outside, which Tony knew wasn't logical, but he couldn't help think it, as the inside was enormous. There were elegant, expensive paintings on every wall, small tables with gorgeous flowers in every corner of every room, and lush clean carpets or beautiful shiny hardwood floors in every room. Tony was impressed that this was a school and not the manor of some millionaire and his family.

Xavier had met Tony's conditions: no one besides Prof. Xavier and Jean knew he was Tony Stark, everyone else knew him as Tony Daniels. Tony was given a room near the garage, it had been a small class room that no one had used in a while, so it was bigger than normal rooms, which was fine with Tony. Unfortunately, his room was on the second floor, just above the garage, but Tony could work with that, the roof to the garage was just beneath his window, a little ingenuity(and a make-shift window latter) and it would work perfectly.

Tony was led to his room by a young man, only a few years older than himself, named Scott. He had short dirty blond hair, and was much taller than Tony himself, though he wore glasses inside. _It probably had to do with his mutation._ Tony thought. After he took his stuff up to his room and settled in, Tony met Prof. Xavier and Jean down in the kitchen to be introduced to the rest of the students and teachers. There weren't many students; only about 10, and there were even less teachers; only about 5.

There was Xavier, he was the dean, or headmaster of sorts, and Jean, of course, was a teacher, then there was a person with pure white hair and dark brown skin named Ororo Munroe, Scott, his last name was Summers, was a teacher too; much to Tony's surprise, a scruffy man with long sideburns and a bottle of beer in his hand named Logan; no last name, and really? A beer? It was like 10 in the morning. And there was one other man, who intrigued Tony the most. While he knew Xavier and Jean's powers already, everyone else had the right to keep their power to themselves if they wanted to; however, the last man's powers were quite obvious. He introduced himself as Dr. Hank McCoy, and by the intelligence the man emitted, Tony didn't doubt his Dr. title. Though what caught Tony's attention was that he was covered in fur and... blue. While Tony didn't actively track reports on mutants, he would have thought the newspapers would have caught a furry, blue man running around.

"Whoa..." Tony muttered when he came down the stairs to stare at the group of mutants.

He heard the man named Logan snort into his beer. And seriously it was way to early in the morning for beer, and was it even legal to have beer in a school? Logan spotted Tony's raised eyebrow and actually laughed at him. Tony being Tony, he didn't mind being laughed at, as long as he was aiming for that reaction; this was not something he was aiming for at the moment.

Tony, in retaliation, held the liquid at the bottom of the bottle as Logan tried to take a drink. Getting none of the desired liquid, Logan tried again.

"The hell?" Logan said, and getting the same result, Logan tilted the bottle up so the bottom was in the air and peered inside.

At that exact moment, Tony let the liquid go. With gravity on its side, the beer quickly flowed to the opening and out, straight onto Logan's face. Logan sputtered and coughed as the beer went up his nose. Nearly everyone burst out laughing, and even Xavier had an amused smiled on his face.

"W-what the Fuck! Jean!" Logan cursed, shaking his head like a wet dog.

"Wasn't me." Jean said simply, a small amused smirk dancing on her lips.

"What? Then who-" Logan stopped and looked at Tony. Like the rest of them, Tony had the right to keep his powers to himself, though now it was obvious what it was. "Why you little-"

Logan cut himself off as he leaped at Tony in anger. Tony simply smiled and moved his right hand across his chest as if being polite and moving out of the way to let Logan go by. Though instead of Logan just missing him and running by, his legs swept out from beneath him and he flew into the air in a back flip. And instead of landing on his stomach or back, Tony kept him floating in mid air. Tony may have only been able to lift things under a hundred pound when he was little, but he could easily lift something a quarter ton (500 pounds). Though Logan was pushing that and Tony was curious as to why.

All the students were laughing, Jean was shaking her head with an amused grin, Dr. Hank was grinning, as were Scott and Ororo. Xavier was simply smiling at Tony's use of powers, he really did have them under control.

Though everyone was laughing and there weren't many students, Tony felt like this school was serious business, so he decided to give it his best. And those who know Tony, know that when he decides to give something his all, he excels at it past any and all conceived levels.

Tony let Logan down after he promised Jean that he would not attack Tony again, though Tony was keeping an eye on the scruffy man just incase. Tony introduced himself to everyone as Tony Daniels and was given a tour of the mansion and grounds. They had lunch and Tony talked with the professor about classes or whatever he had at this school for mutants.

Xavier explained that each student had both one on one classes with all the teachers, and then each teacher had a class where everyone would be together in a group. Tony thought this was pretty fair. They discussed what Tony needed to work on: energy manipulation and healing. Tony's telekinesis was already better than Jeans at that point and he was allowed to use the Danger Room to strengthen them if he wanted. Tony had commented on that if the 'Danger Room' wasn't dangerous enough, he reserved the right to either rename it into something like 'The Fluffy Kitten Room', make it more dangerous by building better weapons and fighting scenarios, or do both.

Xavier also explained the X-Men to him, and told him about the bad mutants who want to take over the world. He said that if Tony wanted, he could join the X-Men. Tony didn't really think he was the super hero type, but he told Charles he'd think about it. It wasn't brought up again, and Tony was glad that he wasn't being forced into joining some mutant superhero squad in funny leather suits. Though, in the future, the X-Men were called upon, every so often, to battle the bad guys, and that left Tony, who was the oldest non-X-man mutant, in charge until they came back.

After dinner that night, Tony sat in his bed thinking about everything. He was here, in a school for mutants, a place where it was safe to be who he was. Tony realized, with quite a bit of surprise, that he felt safe. He hand't felt safe since he was with his mom, which had almost been nearly 6 months ago. Before she had died. Tony relished that feeling, and smiled at the thought that his mother would be proud of him for joining this school. She would have been so happy and so, _so_ proud of him. Tears began to prick at his eyes and Tony tried to hold them back. But the thought of his mother and the feeling of safety was too much and they flowed silently down his cheeks. That was the first time since the night of his parents funeral, that Tony cried himself to sleep.

The next morning Tony went to classes, learned a bit about everyone and made some friends; real ones, not people who just wanted his money or family reputation. It felt nice and Tony basked in it. It felt very pleasant to just, fit in with everyone without anything being expected of you.

The students were of varying ages: there were some children; 6-12 year olds, there were young teens; 13-16, and there were older teens like Tony; 17-19. Sometimes even the other teachers would be students, Jean and Scott, both of whom had control over their powers, but definitely could use work, often worked with Ororo, Hank, and Charles to better control and manipulate their powers.

Slowly, Tony grew accustom to everyone, learning everyone's powers and their X-Men names. Ororo was Storm, and she could control the weather, Scott was Cyclops, and he could shoot energy beams out of his eyes. Logan was Wolverine, and he had super regenerative abilities, as well as having Adamantium fused with his bones and could protract long knife-like blades out of his knuckles. Hank was Beast, and he was like a fuzzy, blue Sasquatch; he had increased stamina, agility, senses, healing, strength, and speed. Beast was essentially super human, he also had sharp claws and teeth and was a genius. Charles, to Tony's amusement, was named Professor X, and everyone knew he was a telepath, as was Jean, who was plain Jean, no nick name, but she also had telekinesis like Tony. Tony didn't have a mutant name either, since at the moment he wasn't an X-man, or even using his real name: Tony Daniels was a bit plain, and there were probably dozens, maybe even hundreds of Tony Daniels' out there, but that's what you need when trying to hide who you are; a name that doesn't stick out and that no one would suspect is false.

Though Tony kept his real identity a secret, he didn't pretend to be someone else. Everyone called him Tony; it would have been to hard to remember a new first name, and he didn't try to hide his smarts; that also would have been to hard to hide, though he did dumb it down a bit, he couldn't be too smart, or they might suspect he had had more schooling than he let on. Tony acted the same as he would at home; silent during meals, and went to bet without a word, and he took his punishments silent as well. It wasn't how a normal 17 year-old handled things, but after years of having to silently take things from his father, it stuck. Though it was odd, Tony eventually grew out of it; being surrounded by kids his age was a huge help. He started talking more during dinner, though it took awhile before he stopped being so damn polite, and he complained when he was sent to his room straight after dinner as punishment for his latest prank.

As time went on, Tony helped out around the mansion, though he wasn't very good at anything besides cooking. He had always had Jarvis to take care of everything, though Jarvis had died in Tony's second year at college, but Tony helped with meals; his mother had taught him how to cook. Whenever Tony would go to Howard's (he had never thought of that man as a father) friends houses' for dinner, or off to other countries for business meeting, Tony would always try everything, so he could make it for his mother since she never got to go. Tony had a very broad palate and he helped Jean, Ororo and a few of the students cook for everyone. He quickly became the designated cook, the 'head chef' for the entire mansion, with Ororo and Jean as his main assistants.

"No, that's not right Jean," Tony said, watching Jean mix the cheese sauce. "If you dump all the cheese in at once, it'll clump up and it wont spread evenly. Here."

Tony used his telekinesis to grade more cheese as they started another pot of the cheese sauce for their chicken Alfredo they were making, while also throwing away the ruined sauce Jean had just attempted. Tony quickly made another batch, but when it came to putting the cheese in, he slowed down. Ororo had gotten it down after messing it up once, lets just say burnt cheese sauce wasn't something he never wanted to smell again.

"Here, watch me," Tony said, floating over some graded cheese and sprinkling it in lightly. "You gotta go slow, if it feels like it's getting to lumpy, turn up the heat for a second and stir slowly until it evens out. Then turn the heat back down and continue to add the cheese slowly. Got it?"

Tony turned to Jean, who was smiling at him. Tony seemed so natural in the kitchen, not just kitchen though, he seemed natural doing anything with his hands. Jean knew Tony had graduated MIT with an engineering degree, among others, and that he loved working on engines, it was no wonder, he could make anything with his hand.

"Yeah, I think I got it." Jean smiled. "Thanks Tony."

"All right, well, I'm going to check on the chicken to see if it's done," Tony said, turning to hide the small blush on his cheeks.

Tony taught Jean and Ororo nearly every recipe he knew, only keeping a few of his mother's more secret recipe's to himself; like her made from scratch, homemade peanut-butter cookie cakes. That was one recipe he would never give up, even if he was under torture. Not even Jean could get the recipe from him, though she had tried.

"Please Tony." Jean practically begged. "Just tell me, I wont tell anyone else!"

"No Jean, this one stays with me." Tony said with a sad smile, though he found the situation hilarious, baking those cakes made him think of his mother.

"PLEASE!" Jean begged, then added, only slightly serious. "Don't make me read your mind."

"You even try it and I'll tell Scott." Tony said with an aloof tone as he washed the dishes. "I know you like him."

Tony turned around just in time to see Jean's eyes widen is shock. Tony smirked, he hadn't actually know for sure that she liked Scott. They were always hanging around, and it was obvious that Scott really liked Jean, but she was oblivious, even with the telepathy. But now? Tony knew for sure that she liked him back.

"Y-you... How..." Jean stuttered in shock.

"I have my ways." Tony said cryptically.

"You w-wouldn't dare." Jean said in a false bravado.

"Oh, I would." Tony said with a teasing tone before turning serious. "This secret stays with me Jean."

Noting how serious Tony was, she realized the recipe must be special to him and decided to let it go. She nodded and exited the kitchen, leaving Tony to wash the dishes in solitude.

Though there were a few incidents like that, everyone soon realized when Tony needed his space and when he needed a friend. Every year that he was there, there was one day that Tony would disappear, skipping classes, ignoring Jean's worried telepathic messages she sent out looking for him. He ignored all questions from Ororo and Scott the next day when he'd return without a word and acted as if nothing was wrong. He ignored Jean's worried glances and Charles knowing ones. He was just glad that Logan was always there sitting on the step at 6am with two bottles of beer, he knew the look in Tony's eyes, the look of longing and misery. That bottle of beer really helped with dealing with his feelings, now he knew why Howard always turned to the bottle, though Tony promised himself he would never be that dependent on alcohol. He only used it to calm his nerves, because after facing the day his mother died by himself, his nerves were more frayed than they were after being hit by Scott's lasers.

But, despite it all, he knew he could come back to the mansion, back to his new family, the old one never forgotten.

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**E/N~ So What'd You Think? Like It Love It? Please Review & Tell Me What You Think! PLEASE! XD**

**Oh & I Have A Poll Posted, It's Similar To The Last One But I Changed It A Bit: I Took Out One Of The Options & Made It A Blind Poll. So Please Check It Out Once You're Done Reading. I've Only Got One Vote On It Currently. X3 **


	5. Tony's New Life

**A/N~ So New Chapter... I Know, It's A Little Late. Though It Is Still Monday, So It's Not Technically Late. But I Had A Crap Load Of Stuff To Do, So I'm Sorry. ****This Chapter Has A Lot Of Info About Tony's Powers In It, I Know Someone Asked About His Powers Concerning The Reactor, But That Should Be Coming up In The Next Chapter, If not Then The One After That. Also Since There's A Lot Of Info That I Made Up Completely Out Of Thin Air, It May Be A Bit Confusing, So If You Have Any Questions, Don't Hesitate To PM Me & Ask, XD**

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******Disclaimer: T-T Nope, Nothing Here Belongs To Me.**

**Warning: Um… Nothing To Really Warn You About. Oh Stane's In It A Bit. Ugh Stane. I Hate Him With A Passion. **

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**_Ch.5_**

**_Tony's New Life._**

**_~2,507~_**

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_He only used it to calm his nerves, because after facing the day his mother died by himself, his nerves were more frayed than they were after being hit by Scott's lasers. _

_But, despite it all, he knew he could come back to the mansion, back to his new family, old never forgotten. _

Over the next three years, Tony had slowly told his close-nit mutant family who he really was, starting with Ororo, who he had surprisingly found was very motherly. She had instantly locked onto him when she had found out both his parents were dead, and she became somewhat of a surrogate mother for him. Though he never forgot his real mother. Next was Scott, who he had realized was kind of a stick in the mud, all to serious. But they found they both loved working on vehicles, so they bonded over that. Then it was Hank, who had become a quick friend of science, and they bonded over mathematics and chemicals. Last was Logan. Tony got along with him the least, though it was mainly because they were very, _very _alike. They both liked their business to stay their business, and didn't talk much about themselves, and they were both crap when it came to dealing with emotions, whether it was someone else's or their own. They understood each other and were there for one another when they needed a break from everyone else. Though Tony was extremely fascinated by the metal fused to the man's bones, he also knew it was a sore spot for the man. Though, nonetheless, he told him.

They had become somewhat of a family before Tony had even really realized it. None of them really acted any different around him, he wasn't even sure Ororo and Logan knew who the Stark's were, and wasn't that humbling. Though Hank did treat him a bit different. Before he had known who Tony was, he would sometimes dumb down what he was talking about, because it was confusing to anyone who didn't have a Bachelors Degree in the subject. But after he found out, he stopped dumbing it down for him, after all Tony did have a Masters in it.

After just under four years, Tony received a letter and a phone call that he was now the CEO of Stark Industries, and if he didn't come to collect and make it official within the next month, he would forfeit it to Obadiah Stane. Tony left the mansion on good terms with everyone, and a promise to return for a visit. He got hugs from everyone and kisses on the cheek from most of the girls, except Ororo, who kissed him on the forehead... Just like his mother used to do. With a, '_Take care kid,_' and a pat on the head from Logan and a, '_You take care of yourself Tony,_' from Ororo as well, Tony nearly cried as he got into the cab, his bags sent ahead of him, but he waited until they had left the grounds of the mansion to let the tears fall.

In those 4 years, Tony had gained superior control over his powers, and had learned many new tricks how powers allowed him to do. His favorite, was that he could now draw electricity directly from the air around him, which didn't mean that he wouldn't need to take the energy from lightbulbs and other electronics anymore, it just meant that, now, he could constantly draw energy into his body. Since air doesn't have much electricity in it to begin with, there wasn't all that much he could do with it right off the bat; he would have to let it build up before he could light a lightbulb or start a CD player. But constantly taking in the small amount of electricity would enable him to stay up all night without destroying a lightbulb.

This new ability also allowed him to constantly heal wounds, as apposed to healing all of or part of a wound in one go and tiring himself out. While he had learned in the past that he needed a large amount of energy to heal, say a cut, and that if he didn't have enough energy he could potentially harm himself further or tire himself out, now he could draw in electricity and direct that small stream of energy to a wound and heal it slowly. This created a healing ability sort of like Logan's, though not nearly as fast and productive, as Tony would have to concentrate on directing that energy to the wound itself. Tony had already mastered absorbing electricity from the air without even thinking about it, creating a sort of chill when he entered the room, which was good, as he was very soft footed and tended to scare people by sneaking up on them without meaning to.

Another thing Tony had learned about his electrokinesis was that he could draw electricity from anything that could hold it: electronics, plants, the air... humans. Tony had accidentally drained Ororo while she was helping him practice his electrokinesis. She had patted his arm while he was absorbing energy from some daffodils. She had been knocked out almost instantly. Tony had freaked out as soon as he felt her energy enter his body. He used his telekinesis to catch her, afraid he'd hurt her more if he touched her, and rushed her to the infirmary where she was treated by Hank for exhaustion. Tony didn't allow anyone to touch him for weeks, even after Ororo had made a full recovery. He'd been scared he'd hospitalize someone else. After nearly a month of Tony skirting around People and avoiding her, Ororo cornered Tony in the Danger Room and gave him a stern talking to, and a hug for good measure. Tony trained his electrokinesis to the brink of perfection so that an accident like that would never happen again.

Tony had learned a lot of things in those 4 years, but the number one thing he had learned was that he was not alone in the world. He was a mutant, and he was proud to be one, just like his mother was proud he was one. Though, Tony would never simply give up that information to anyone without first trusting them with his life and knowing their feelings towards mutants. Tony had still never willingly told anyone he was a mutant; his mother had found him practicing, Charles and Jean had found him with Cerebro, and everyone else in the mansion knew he was one before he even set foot in the doors.

Tony had never told anyone he was a mutant, and until he found the right person, or persons; very unlikely, but you never know, to tell his deepest secret too, he planned on keeping it that way.

Tony arrived at the main offices of Stark Industries in California the next day. He calmly walked into the building, ignoring all the eyes that were on him, head held up high in confidence, but he walked leisurely as if he didn't have a care in the world. When he entered the elevator, Tony finally got away from the curious eyes. He rode the elevator up to the top floor, where the board of directors, his lawyer, and Obadiah Stane were waiting for him.

While Tony was gone, he had still made designs and ideas for SI and sent them to Obadiah. He had probably designed more than half of the current weapons that SI made. The board of directors were very excited for his designs on something called an Arc Reactor that would be a self sufficient reactor that would power the factory.

Tony exited the elevator and headed down the hall toward the board room. When he entered, all eyes were on him in a millisecond.

"Ah, Tony!" Stane greeted as he came over and placed a hand around Tony's shoulders. "It's good to see you. Welcome back!"

"Good to see you too Obi." Tony said, barely able to contain the shudder that threatened to come out at Obadiah's touch. Tony had never really trusted the man, knowing his views on mutants were very similar to his Howard's. Tony looked at all the board members and smirked. "Well, lets get this thing started."

That day, Tony was officially made CEO of Stark Industries. Over the next decade, Tony Stark would built an unbreakable empire, which he sat a top of, building weapons for the US military. He reconnected with a friend from college, Lieutenant Colonel James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, who was in the Air Force. Rhodey became the liaison between SI and the US military, and a close friend and confidant of Tony's.

Though Tony will never tell Rhodey he's a mutant, simply because he works for the military.

Tony eventually goes though every available secretary and PA in California who's willing to work for him. It was just something about his attitude that drove them off, he didn't know what. Maybe it was is craziness? Until one day a red headed woman with a fierce look on her face bursts into his office and throws a folder full of papers on his desk. Tony is bewildered and wonders where his security is. He looks around the woman and sees the two men he's hired for security, one lying on the ground, moaning and grabbing at his face, and the other stumbling around and moaning and grabbing at his face as well. Though Tony would never say this out loud, the scene outside his office door was hilarious to watch. Tony turned back to the fiery redhead standing in front of him.

"Can I ask what you did to my security?" Tony asks with an amused smile.

"Pepper spray." The woman said briskly.

Tony has a hard time keeping himself from laughing at how serious she had said that.

"And what can I do for you?" Tony asks.

The woman leaned forward and smashed one of her perfectly manicured nails into the folder she'd thrown on his desk.

"This is last weeks accounting reports that you did." She said seriously. "You made an error Mr. Stark."

This got Tony's attention, he remembered doing those reports, he'd been hungover. Though, even with a hangover, he doubted he'd made a mistake; he'd done them drunk and got them perfect before. Tony grabbed the folder and began flicking though the papers.

"7th page." The woman told him helpfully. "You credited the amount of $250,000 into Accounts Receivable when it should have been debited in the Cash In Bank column."

Tony quickly turned to the 7th page and looked at what he'd written. He did the mental math, and in under a second his eyes started to widen. He redid the math and looked it over a second time, bewildered that he could have made such a mistake, he could have just lost his company a quarter of a million dollars, if this woman hadn't caught his mistake. Then he realized he still hadn't gotten the woman's name.

"I realize you think you and your math are perfect Mr. Stark, but you're not. You're human just like the rest of us." With that the woman turned around and started out the door.

"Hold it!" Tony called to her and she turned back around.

Tony made a come-hither gesture with his fingers and the woman came back in to stand in front of his desk. She waited as Tony grabbed a pen to scratch out his mistakes and wrote them in the right columns, writing the new totals and signing his name at the bottom. Tony closed the folders and handed them back to the woman.

"Thank you." Tony said, he was very impressed with this woman, and the pepper spray was only half of it. "What is your name?"

"Virginia Potts." Ms. Potts answered. "And your welcome Mr. Stark."

Tony sat there for a second as Ms. Potts looked over the report with a critical eye to make sure Tony hadn't made a mistake with his correction. Then Tony got a brilliant idea.

"You work down in Accounting right?" Tony asked.

"No." Ms. Potts said. "I use to. I was fired earlier today."

"What? Why?" Tony asked, confused as to why such a brilliant woman had been fired from his company.

"My department head said that Tony Stark never makes mistakes when it comes to math, and that 'how dare I say otherwise.'" Ms. Potts answered. "Well, Mr. Stark, I appreciate your time, but I must return these reports and clean out my desk."

"Would you like to be my personal assistant?" Tony blurted out, there was no way he was letting a woman like her go.

"Excuse me?" Ms. Potts said suspiciously. "Your... personal, assistant?"

"Yes, I am currently down one at the moment, as she quit a week ago, and you seem to be made of stern stuff and fight for what's right and what you believe in, and all that jazz, and I really admire that." Tony said with a serious face. "What do you say Pepper?"

"My name is Virginia Mr. Stark, _not_ Pepper." Ms. Potts said.

"Yeah, but I like Pepper better. Pepper Potts. See? Even sound better." Tony smirked. "It's a nickname. You did pepper spray my security after all."

Tony's smirk grew bigger as Pepper blushed a bit, but stayed confident and in control. He was liking this woman increasingly.

"And if I decline?" Pepper asked.

"Then you can just go back to your job in Accounting." Tony said, making sure she knew she was staying with SI and not losing her job. "But I'd really like a firecracker like you as my PA Pepper."

Pepper adopted a contemplative look, a little crease appeared between her eyebrows and her lips pursed: Tony had to admit, it was quite adorable. Then She straightened up, brushing imaginary dust off her suit pants and looked him in his eyes. She gave him a small nod, indicating she'd take the job.

"Perfect! You start tomorrow. 8am sharp." Tony said quickly.

"Will that be all Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked in a business-like tone.

"That will be all Ms. Potts." Tony said with a small smirk, he knew things were about to get very interesting.

Pepper Potts, unsurprisingly, was a very good PA: she never took any crap from Tony, whether it was attitude or flirting, and eventually they became friends as well as boss and worker. They were best friends and knew nearly everything about each other. Pepper had been the best thing to happen to him since leaving Xavier's School For The Gifted.

Though Tony hadn't told her he was a mutant. Mutants still weren't know that widely, especially all the way on the West coast, as most mutants seemed to be on the East coast... but that was probably because that was the only place he'd ever seen any other mutants besides himself. Tony didn't know how Pepper felt about mutants, she was an _unknown_. The subject was never brought up, and Tony thought it'd be odd to just bring it up randomly.

But still, Tony wouldn't tell her unless he knew for sure, 100%, that she didn't mind them. And even then it was a 50/50 whether or not he would tell her.

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**E/N~ Well, What Did You Think? I Know This Was A Bit Shorter, But It Was The Best I Could Do Seeing As I Don't Know Much About How Pepper Actually Started As Tony's PA(I Admit I've Never Read A Comic & Have Only Seen The Movies. I Take Most Of What I Learn From Other FanFics… & Google.) **

**Please Review! Reviews Are Like My Arc Reactor, Keeping Me Alive! Flame Reviews Are Like Palladium Poisoning, But I Do Appreciate Constructive Criticism! X3  
**


	6. I Am Iron Man

**A/N~ So New Chapter! I Hope You Like This One. Also, I've Decided What I'm Going To Do With The Poll… I Mean I've Chosen How Pepper's Going To Find Out. XD**

**& In This Chapter It's Discussed How Tony Deals With His Reactor. It's Not Detailed All That Much, But It's Not Really A Big Part Of The Story, So I Probably Wont Go Into Much More Detail Later. Maybe A Mention By The Team & A Brief Description, But Nothing Beyond That. Sorry. I Do Have A Good Idea In My Head About It, I'm Just Not Planning On Putting It In The Story, So If You Have Any Questions, Just Ask. X3**

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**Disclaimer~ Yeah, I Really Wish People Would Stop Saying I Own This… Because It Just Reminds Me That I Truly Don't! T-T **

**Warning~ Pretty Much All The Bad Stuff That Was in Iron Man.**

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**_Ch.6_**

**_I Am Iron Man._**

**_~2,896~_**

* * *

_But still, Tony wouldn't tell her unless he knew for sure that she didn't mind them. And even then it was a 50/50 wether he would tell her or not. _

Tony's life was going very well; he was CEO of the largest weapons manufacturer in the world, he was literally the smartest person in the world; just because it hadn't been proven yet doesn't mean it wasn't true, and he was currently the richest man in the world; _that_ was a fact. Tony had just gotten on his private plane and was flying with his best friend, Rhodey, who he had known since college and was now in the military, to a weapons demonstration in the middle east. It was going to be a piece of cake: land, be his normally awesome self, and sell some weapons. An easy day in Tony's books.

And Tony was right for the most part. The actual weapons demonstration was done and over with in a snap; however, it was the trip back to base where things started to get complicated: they were attacked. Of all the things that could have happened to Tony: a flat tire, over heated engine, someone could have had a heart attack or a stroke, but no~. He just _had_ to get attacked by _terrorists_. Just his damn luck.

Tony tried to use his powers to protect himself, as well as anyone near him, but before he could really be of any help, he was hit by a mortar. Once he saw it, he only had a second or two to either throw it away, which wouldn't have helped much since it was so powerful, or run. Neither option was good, and he would have ended up injured anyway. He was lucky, considering it was a Stark Industries mortar; he should have been dead on the spot.

When Tony woke up, he was confused and, for the first time in a long time, scared. There was a headache blaring though out his head, and his chest was on fire. It felt like his lungs were being compressed and even though he was still drawing in electricity from the air, he could feel his body automatically stealing it to heal his wounds.

He got up and found wires attached to a car battery, they were also attached to his chest. It was like a slap in the face, being injured and having the energy to fix a lot of the damage right in front of him, but not being able to take it because it was keeping him alive. He internally laughed at his horrid luck.

He met Yinsen, who explained the car battery, and semi explained where they were. He was introduced to his captors, and a more elaborated reason for his capture was given, albeit translated by Yinsen, so he honestly had no idea if what the Middle Easter man was saying was being accurately translated or not. But he semi trusted Yinsen; the man _had_ preformed open heart surgery on him and saved his life after all. Though he wouldn't tell his fellow prisoner about his gifts, he was an extreme _unknown_ since he didn't even know anything about the man other than his name and that he'd saved his life.

After several sessions of water torture and being beaten, Tony finally gave in and said he'd build the weapons for them, though he was lying though his teeth. Even if he did build that blasted missile (he dare not even think it's name anymore) for them, they'd just kill him once they had it. And even after he agreed to build the blasted thing, they still tortured him. _Real nice bunch of men I have as capturers,_ Tony thought(Please note his sarcasm). Though Tony powered through, he'd developed a way to block out pain with his electrokinesis, though he didn't like it because he couldn't tell when something was seriously wrong: like internal bleeding or when something was broken, but it was worth the trade off if he didn't have to feel like shit 24/7. Because if he felt like shit, he'd work slower, and if he worked slower, then they beat him and tortured him more, which only made him feel worse and the cycle went on. So Tony used his powers and felt none of his existing pain. However, that power was limited to only existing pain, and not new pain, So he he would still feel the new wounds inflicted on him by his captors.

Tony built the miniature Arc Reactor and had Yinsen put it in; damn he wished he could have had some pain killers, even an Advil would have helped. His powers didn't work on new pain, since he couldn't gage how much energy he needed, he could guess, but then he'd be using energy inefficiently, and even if it caused him pain, he would not waste what little energy he had. He tried to draw in more electricity to quicken the healing, but it gave him a headache that almost wasn't worth it; however, the dismal amount of electricity that was in the cave barely staved off the many possible infections. And again, he wasn't going to waste what precious little energy he had.

Once the arc was put in, Tony had the immediate urge to drain it. He knew he shouldn't, _couldn't_ or he'd die with in minutes, but _damn_ his body craved that energy. But he didn't: he needed it for its intended purposes and he didn't have the resources to make another one. With his mobility regained, Tony set to work on his main project, not a missile, but a suit.

It was nearly three months later that a man named Raza came to visit: obviously the real leader of the terrorists; he demanded the missile by tomorrow. Tony had Yinsen begin putting the suit together as soon as they left, it took nearly 10 hours to just get the suit put together and then another 3 to actually get Tony inside of it. It took another 2 hours for Yinsen to hook it up to the computers. However it took another 1 and a half hours for the suit to boot up. Unfortunately, it only took 16 hours for the terrorists to realize something was off with their two prisoners.

The explosives Tony had set on the door detonated earlier than they'd expected when Yinsen couldn't prevent the terrorists from opening the door. Tony screamed as Yinsen ran out the door, digging up false courage and trying to buy Tony some more time. Tony franticly sucked up all the energy he could get, destroying several lightbulbs and using the electricity and sending it to the computer, making it work faster and loading the suit quicker.

Tony stomped his way though the maze like caves, following the only way out. The only time he stopped was when he saw Yinsen lying, bloody, on bags of some type of grain. Tony tried to make him get up, but it was too late: Tony was too late, no amount of electricity could be converted and heal that many wounds. Yinsen had multiple gunshot wounds in his legs, arms, and torso. There was no way he could walk out of there, and there was no guarantee that they'd be found in time even if he could. It could be days before they were found.

Yinsen's dying last words hit Tony hard: "Don't waste you life." Tony promised himself then that he would never allow another innocent to die by his weapons; he'd hunt them all down and destroy each and every gun, missile, and weapon his company had ever developed, and then he'd kill the terrorist using them. He promised that he'd withdraw all the weapons he'd given the US military and destroy them too, or he'd take them back by force if the US military didn't want to play nice.

Tony watched as Yinsen's eyes shut and he breathed his last breath, and then stood up and walked outside. He easily destroyed the terrorist camp with his suit, in his rage fueled massacre, he didn't even notice that he was also using his telekinesis to fling people into the air and stopping bullets. He flew out of there with his large metal suit, which shouldn't have been able to fly for so long, but thanks to his powers it did, and landed in the sand hard, said suit smashing to pieces at the impact. The only thing saving Tony from the crash was his telekinesis. Tony laid there in the sand for what seemed like forever, just laying there and watching the cloudless sky. And for the first time in a decade, Tony cried for the loss of a friend.

The relief that washed over Tony when he heard that helicopter almost rivaled the relief he had felt when his mother accepted him all those years ago. He saw Rhodey running towards him and he collapsed to the ground. Rhodey made some crake about a fun-vee, but Tony didn't, _couldn't_, care: he was saved, and he was going to go home.

The first thing Tony wanted when he got back to California was a press conference, the second was a cheese burger. Though when he got into his car with Pepper, Happy handed back a bag of burgers. Bless that man. Pepper organized a press conference, and there Tony announced that he was quitting the Weapons manufacturing business.

The public was shocked, and not to mention angry with him, not surprising in the least really. What did surprise him was that even Pepper was shocked and angry at him. He'd thought she'd back him on everything. He wasn't all that surprised that Rhodey was pissed with him, he was part of the military after all, if he hadn't been angry, Tony would have thought foul play was up or something. But he hadn't expected Pepper to be so angry with him.

Tony makes himself a new version of his Arc Reactor, with sterile metals and better parts. He takes his time with it and chances nothing with it's creation. He has Pepper put it in, and she's still a bit angry about his announcement, but she helps, and some of the tension is released and their on better terms.

He builds a new version of his suit and tests it. Flying was the hardest part to build, so many problems with defying gravity, but remember, this is Tony Stark and he's genius. He easily accomplishes something it would have taken the worlds greatest minds (sans himself of course) longer than a decade to figure out, then another decade to actually build. After a week or so, Tony achieves flight. Though there are a few speed bumps on the way: using to much power and slamming into the ceiling definitely wasn't planned... or pleasant.

Once he got the boots and the stabilizers built, the rest of the suit was a piece of cake. Even actually flying was easy once he got the hang of it. Okay sure, he still had that little icing problem, but even before he got back to his mansion, Tony had already worked out a solution. Now he just had a giant hole in his roof.

Tony went to the annual firefighter ball he sponsors and finds Pepper in an amazing dress, dances with her, almost kisses her, and then ends up leaving her on the roof waiting for a drink. He apologized later and tried to explain, but she was still a bit irritated about the whole 'not going to make weapons anymore' thing, he really hoped she would have been over that by now. But when Tony saw those pictures, then Obadiah said that he was the one to file for the injunction against him, that had just crushed him. Sure he knew Obadiah was cruel sometimes, usually when it came to their competition, but he'd never expected that cruel personality to be turned on him. Now Tony had a bad feeling that he wasn't just kidnapped by terrorist.

Tony went home and watched the news, and when he saw his missiles on the TV he snapped. He destroyed part of his lab and put on the suit. He flew to the middle east and released his rage on the unsuspecting terrorists. He was attacked by the US Air Force on his way back and talked to Rhodey, who seemed a bit more friendly since the last time they'd seen each other. He was happy for that.

Tony hadn't gotten any calls from anyone in a while, definitely not on his home phone, not many people even knew his home phone number, including himself. But after Pepper had stormed out of the lab, after finding him in a bullet hole riddled suit, Tony went to the living room to relax. He'd gotten the call while he was flipping though the channels.

"_Sir, there is a phone call for you._" JARVIS's voice filtered through the speakers in the room.

"Who is is?" Tony asked.

"_It is Mr. Xavier Sir._" JARVIS answered.

"Patch it though to my lab." Tony said, heading back down to his lab. "Hello?"

'_Ah Anthony, it is good to hear your voice._' Charles' relieved voice came though the speakers now. '_It's good to have you back, safe and sound._'

"Well, it's definitely good to be back." Tony said. "So what's up? You just checking up to make sure I'm really back?"

'_Something like that. We all just watched your press conference._' Charles said.

"Oh yeah, that." Tony grumbled.

'_How are you Anthony?_' Charles asked randomly.

"I'm good Professor." Tony answered. "Why?"

'_You were held captive for three months Anthony, I would not expect any normal person to be fine._' Charles said bluntly.

"Yes, well, I'm not exactly _normal_ am I?" Tony said.

'_We looked for you Tony,_' Charles said, startling Tony with his abruptness. '_We couldn't find you, not even with Cerebro. You must have been either in the presence of a telepath, or surrounded by metals that block telepathic waves._'

"I'd bet on the latter. I was in a cave." Tony said dryly, then softened. "But thank you, knowing you were looking for me helps me a lot."

'_I just wish we could have found you._' Charles said melancholically.

"Stop it Charles." Tony said. "I'm fine, that's what matters."

'_Yes, you are right._' Charles reluctantly agreed.

They chatted for a little while, talking about what Tony had missed in his three month absence, before JARVIS interrupted them.

"_Sir, Ms. Potts has arrived back at the mansion._" JARIVS informed him.

"Right, looks like I have to go Charles." Tony said. "JARVIS have her come here."

"_Of course Sir._" JARVIS answered.

'_Right, sorry to have kept you this long._' Charles apologized.

"It wasn't a problem at all, it was nice hearing from you." Tony said. "Goodbye."

'_Goodbye Anthony._'

Pepper came in and Tony asked her for her help. He explained that he needed her to get some information from his office, he didn't feel safe going in himself now that he knew Obadiah was against him, but he didn't tell Pepper that. Pepper refused at first and even quit, but when Tony face her with cold, hard reality, she agreed. It seemed that she had gotten over her anger and now was just worried about him. It was the first positive feeling he'd had in over 4 months.

While Pepper was getting the information for him, Tony was sitting in his living room, being attacked by an old friend. Obadiah Stane was using an old SI invention that hadn't made the cut. Tony was horrified and betrayed when Stane said that he was the one to order the hit on Tony, though it confirmed his suspicions, but he was even more terrified when he took the reactor out of his chest. He was worried when Stane mentioned Pepper and he thought he was going to die and not be able to help her.

Luckily for him, only a few seconds after Stane left, Tony used his mutant abilities. He used electrokinesis and absorbed all the electricity in the room, which was a lot since the whole house was full of it, even the couch had seat heaters in it, he used the electricity to un-paralyze himself, though it did take him a minute, he'd tried to grab the shrapnel before using his telekinesis, but it was too hard and there were to many pieces for him to grasp.

He made it down to his lab, and with a bit of help, thank God for Dummy, he was able to get the old reactor, Pepper had given it to him as a gift, and put it in. Rhodey showed up and helped him get to his suit, and he flew off to help Pepper.

In the fight with Stane, Tony used his powers, he didn't care if Stane knew anymore, the man already wanted him dead and he wasn't an _unknown_, Tony knew exactly how the man felt about mutants. Tony used his electrokinesis to try and give the suit a bit more energy, since the original Arc he had wasn't meant for flight in the first place. He used his telekinesis to push back Stane's Iron Monger suit, though that didn't help much. He deflected bullets and diverted missiles: he never ripped out the targeting system.

When Tony had Pepper overload the large Arc Reactor, Tony was still on the roof. He absorbed a fair about of energy from the blast, he healed all his wounds and even charged his Arc Reactor a bit. Though Tony couldn't go though what he had and come out of a battle like that without some type of damage, he cut his forehead and hand to make it seem like he was lucky and had only been hurt a little bit.

After the battle, Tony had another press conference where he was supposed to tell millions of people a lie about himself, something which he'd been doing since he was 4. But this one was different, he could use this one to help people and they wouldn't hate him for it. So instead of telling the room full of press that he was on his yacht with Pepper and a group of people he'd never actually met, he said the four words that changed his life forever.

"I am Iron Man."

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**E/N~ Okay, So What'd You Think? Please Review! Remember They're My Arc Reactor! I'm Serious When I Say That! When I Don't Get Reviews, I Become All Depressed & What Not & Forget To Write. So Please? Review? :D**


	7. Iron Man 2

**A/N~ Okay So Again A Bit Late, Seeing As I Usually Post Mid-Day & It Is Now Late-Night… Sorry, My Bio Lab Ran Until 10:30pm… Yeah I Know. It Was Either Staying Up Late Or Waking Up Early. I'd Like To Thank All Those Who Reviewed Last Chapter & Faved, & Followed. It Makes Me Happy To Know How Many People Are Waiting For The Next Chapter… It Also Make Me Write Faster! X3 **

**Oh & I Just Wanted To Mention, I Went On An Avenger Buying Spree! I Bought The Avengers Movie 2 Disk DVD's With Blue Ray & TWO Avengers Hats! **

**& Then I Bought A Bunch Of Iron Man Stuff Too! I Got 3 Bobble Heads: One Of Iron Man(Duh), One Of War Machine(Gotta Love That Bad Boy), & One Of Iron Patriot(Can't Wait For Iron Man 3)! & I Also Bought A Shirt With The Arc Reactor On It! The Triangle One! I'm So Happy! The Only Thing That Could Make Me Happier Would Be To Meet Robert Downey Jr,! XD **

…**Anyway, ENJOY! X3**

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**Disclaimer~ Nope Not Mine! It Breaks My Heart! T-T **

**Warning~ Everything From Iron Man 2… Obviously.**

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**_Ch.7_**

**_Iron Man 2_**

**_~2,889~_**

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_So instead of telling the room full of press that he was on his yacht with Pepper and a group of people he'd never actually met, he said the four words that changed his life forever. _

"_I am Iron Man."_

It wasn't until a few months after the whole 'I am Iron Man' debacle that Tony became ill. He didn't know what it was for the first few weeks, maybe a really bad flu or something. It was far worse than anything he could have imagined. When he started to get pains in his chest where the Arc Reactor was, Tony ran diagnostics on it and on every part of himself. The results showed the Palladium in the Arc Reactor was poisoning him. Now the normal response to being poisoned would be to remove the thing making the poison; however, Tony would die without the Reactor.

"_It would appear that the same thing that is keeping you alive is also killing you, sir._"

And wasn't that a kick in the face.

Tony hid his illness. Like he did with his powers, he told no one. He masked the symptoms, used his powers to cut off the pain, and he acted normal... well as normal as Tony acted, which was pretty abnormal for a normal person. Tony found that drinking Chlorophyll helped purge his blood of the poison, but it wasn't enough, there was too much poison in his blood: it was only a relief and a temporary one at that.

The same happened with his healing abilities. Tony was able to heal himself with his minimal healing abilities, but the poisoning was happening too fast and at too high a volume for him to be able to heal himself fully or to a point that it truly mattered. He could only slow the inevitable.

When Tony was brought before the courts, he was completely fine with it. They wouldn't be able to take his tech, and even it they won it, they wouldn't be able to operated it. Or even have the time to try and figure it out as Tony would take it back, even if that meant that he became a fugitive of the US. However, when Tony saw Justin Hammer come out, Tony nearly wanted to take his microphone and shove it up Hammer's ass with his telekinesis, because he wasn't going to touch that worm with his own hands, then electrocute it with his electrokinesis.

Luckily Rhodey showed up, or Tony may have actually done something like that. But instead, Tony joked, he used his Stark Phone and hacked the TV's in the room to show video on countries _attempts_ at making an Iron Man Suit, though none of them had an Arc Reactor or JARVIS controlling the finer mechanics, so they didn't work and either blew up, didn't even start up, or in Justin Hammer's case, malfunctioned and nearly killed the pilot. He got out of court on the senators' bad side, the people's good side, and in a fairly good mood. It was a good day.

After screwing the courts over a few weeks earlier, Tony takes a good long look at his life: he would be dying in approximately a few months, and he had a shit load of stuff he still needed to finalize. He needed to sort out his will: his houses, his money, his company. Pepper came down to talk to (complain and scold) him and try to get him to sign some papers. And Tony did what he had planning on doing since he found out he was dying.

"I herby, irrevocably, appoint you chairman and CEO of Stark Industries, effective immediately... Yeah, done deal. K?... I've actually given this a fair amount of thought, believe it or not. Doing a bit of head hunting, so to speak. Trying to figure out who a worthy successor would be. And then I realized: It's you. It's always been you."

Tony almost laughed at the look on Pepper's face: It was pure awe and confusion, a remarkable mix if Tony did say so himself. He was sure she thought she was dreaming. Tony walked over to where Dummy had brought over Champaign, and continued talking as she followed him.

"I thought there's be a legal issue, but actually, I'm a, capable of appointing my successor: my successor being you. Congratulations?"

Tony hands her a glass of Champaign, and it takes her a second before she even makes a move to take it, and she stutters out some confused and happy words.

"I-I do... I don't-" Pepper stuttered, but the smile that lights up her face as it finally sinks in is beautiful and breathtaking.

"Take it, just take it." Tony said and she took the glass.

"-know what to think?"

"Don't think: drink." Tony said sitting down, they toasted and tapped their glasses together in celebration.

When Tony is in Monaco and is attacked by that nut job Ivan, Tony found that he had significantly less control of his mutant powers. Tony absorbed quite a bit of the energy from Ivan's little electro-whips without meaning to, even though the suit. Luckily he was able to reign in his out of whack powers before he moved something with his telekinesis.

Tony quickly defeated the mad Russian and saved the day. On the plane back to the US, Tony spent well over half the flight making an omelet for Pepper. He had been going over and over in his head that he should tell her about his poisoning, but he wasn't sure just yet. They talked a bit and Tony instantly knew that she was, for some reason, disappointed in him. Was it for suggesting they not go home? Maybe for deciding he wanted to drive _his _race car in the race? He didn't actually know. But she was disappointed so he let it go. It turned out to be not such a good idea.

As it turns out, Tony should have canceled his birthday party even though he didn't go to Venice. Tony, in his depression about dying, got completely waisted at his party. Tony didn't notice when his best friend Rhodey arrived, and he barely even remembers Pepper trying to get him to stop the party after he peed in his suit (it really does have a filtration system... though he still probably wouldn't drink it). But he _does _remember Rhodey wearing his suit and them fighting. He's momentarily forgot that his powers tend to go a bit wild when he's drunk, but he does remember this when he sees that Rhodey's in the suit, and no matter what, even attacking him with his own suit, Rhodey was still a normal human, and he'd never hurt someone with his powers. Especially someone he still considered a friend, even if the other didn't.

So Tony dials back the powers and fights him with just the suit. Though it's all just for show. If Rhodey had tried to put the suit on the day before, he would have been tasered until he passed out and peed himself. But, seeing as Rhodey was not face down on the marble floor on his lab, Tony had keyed Rhodey to be the only person, beside Tony himself, to be able to operate the Iron man system. The world needed someone who could work the suit when Tony was gone. The suit was designed so that JARVIS continued to run it and make sure nothing was changed or tampered with. That way, no one else could be programmed to wear it. Though he did allow for it to be modified in that they could add weapons if they wanted, and lets face it, the military would add weapons to toaster if they felt it necessary.

After the fight, Tony, again depressed by his impending death, and having just lost his best friend, decided to get out of the house for a little while. Tony did what nearly every woman does when she's sad, he decides to eat himself into a better mood. It was still dark outside, so Tony flew just outside the city to his favorite place for snacks: Randy's Donuts. Unfortunately, Tony was still a bit drunk, if not completely hungover, by the time the sun rose.

It was midmorning when Fury, that one eyed bastard, came and got Tony out of that comfortable ass donut.

"Sir! I'm going to have to ask you to exit the donut!"

Tony would have laughed at this line any other day, and probably would later in life, if JARVIS would find that damn security footage for him already. But that's beside the point.

When Tony found out that Natalie Rushman was actually Natasha Romanoff, a SHIELD shadow, and had been working for Fury the entire time, he was kinda PO'd. What really ticked him off, was that they knew Tony was ill: he hadn't told anyone. If they knew that, then could they know he was a mutant? It was possible, but highly unlikely, as they would have probably mentioned it, or captured him, or something equally drastic and dramatic. At that point, SHIELD was one big _unknown_. But they hadn't tried to capture him or anything, so they probably didn't know.

When Natashaile stabbed him in the neck, he thought that maybe they did know and they were drugging him for capture, but he kept his cool, and after the first second and he didn't feel anything wrong, he reacted accordingly.

Tony was taken back to his, still wrecked, home to find a cure for his Palladium poisoning, how, he didn't know. Fury informed him that his father helped find SHIELD, and left him with some old movie reels and Agent Coulson as a watch dog. Tony watched the reels while looking though the papers and blue prints in side the box Fury left. All were of his father, of when he was filming his video for the Stark Expo. Most were bloopers, but at the very end, his father had left a message for him.

"I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is, and always will be, my greatest creation... is you."

Tony couldn't believe his ears, had his father really just said that? That _he_, Tony Stark, was _his_, Howard Stark's, greatest creation? Tony couldn't believe it. Had Howard known that Tony was a mutant, he wouldn't have made the video, but Tony was lost for words. His father was proud of the _human_ Tony, and even that was shocking enough. In his confusion, Tony left his mansion, surprisingly easy, considering that Agent Coulson was supposed to be watching him: maybe he really was watching _Supernanny_. Either way, Tony escaped from his own home (and wasn't that a load of shit) and headed to SI to talk with Pepper: he was going to tell her he was dying.

He stopped to get some strawberries, paying with his solid gold watch, before arriving, it was just something to use as an ice breaker. Once he got in there; however, he wasn't able to tell her. She was obviously very angry with him at the moment, and as it turned out, Pepper was allergic to strawberries, just his luck. He tried to play it off as progress, but it failed. She told him to get out, not in such a rude way, but it was clear that's what she wanted to say. Natashalie came in, surprise covered her features for a millisecond when she saw him, but recovered pretty quickly. Then Happy came in and asked if the _boss _needed anything else, and both Tony and Pepper answered. Tony tried to make light of the situation and made a joke.

"I lost both the kids in the divorce."

It failed miserably. Pepper ended up leaving, with both Happy and Natashalie. Tony was left to get his stuff out of the office but just as he was leaving he spotted the set for the Stark Expo. It was half covered with a sheet, but Tony saw something in it. He took it back to his lab, had JARVIS scan it and, after manipulating the hologram of it, he found that it was a new element.

It took Tony awhile to make the actual element, naming it Starkanium, and putting it into the Arc Reactor to run tests on. He would have let the tests be run, like JARVIS was doing, but he got a call from an old friend: Ivan Vanko. Tony didn't know how the man was still alive, reports had shown that he was killed in prison. But he was alive and kicking, and somewhere in Manhattan wanting to fight it out. Tony grabbed the new Starkanium Reactor and put it in, despite what JARVIS's warnings.

"_Sir._"

"You wanna run some tests? Run them. And assemble the suit while you're at it. Put it together now."

"_We are unclear as to the effects this-_"

"I don't wanna hear it JARVIS...(burp) That tastes like coconut... and metal. Oh WOW! YEAH!"

In a totally rash move, Tony flew to the Stark Expo, interrupting Justin Hammer's presentation right after Rhodey appeared with his Mark II suit, all Hammered out with weapons. It made Tony's stomach turn, not just because there were weapons on his suit, but also because they were _Justin_ _Hammer's_ weapons. Tony landed and made nice, until Rhodey's suit was compromised and began shooting at him, along with the 32 ugly ass Hammer droids that all looked the same but the paint jobs.

Tony took the droids and Rhodey out of the building they were in, getting them away from the crowds. That part of the battle mostly consisted of Tony flying and Rhodey and several of the droids chasing after him. Tony, being the master strategist that he was, destroyed all 8 of the flying drones without even firing at them once.

But then Rhodey had to tackle him into the gardens. He really liked the gardens, and now they were going to be a battle zone. Tony duked it out with Rhodey for a minute before Natashalie, somehow, rebooted Rhodey's suit, thank goodness, Tony didn't think he could beat his buddy again without bruising the mans pride. Or, at least, that's what Tony told himself.

Then Pepper, of all people, had to overhear him say he wasn't dying anymore. She should have been ecstatic, he _wasn't_ dying after all. Tony woke up Rhodey and he actually apologized. Though he did still say that it was Tony's fault.

"No it's your fault, I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

Once the rest of the drones appeared, in a very video gameish fashion, might Tony add, him and Rhodey commenced in kicking the metal ass of the rest of the _Hammeroids_, They weren't all that strong anyway; Tony did the most, being more used to the suit than Rhodey, and being their 'big gun,' and soon all the drones were down.

But just as they were taking a breather, Vanko showed up with his own suit. Though it was much better than Stane's Iron Monger suit, it was still no where near as good as either of Tony's or Rhodey's suits. It did pack a wallop with it's repulsor whips, but they got the job done.

Unfortunately, just before he died, Vanko activated the self destruct on all the drones though out the Expo. Realizing that Pepper was still in the Expo, Tony raced to get her, reaching her just in time.

They landed on a roof top and, in a fit of panic, Pepper quit as CEO of Stark Industries, though Tony wouldn't allow her to to quit like that. The argued for a second and before either knew what was happening, they were kissing.

It was a happy type of ending, Tony saved Pepper, he got his best friend back, Vanko was dead, Hammer was going to prison, and then to top it all off, Tony and Pepper were now kissing on a roof top. The perfect ending to an okay day. Tony asked if it was weird that they were kissing and Pepper answered with a no, it wasn't weird.

It was a kinda romantic little moment; the lights of the city in the background, a light breeze, and Rhodey just sitting there making comments on how they kiss...

"_I_ think it was weird. You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape." Rhodey said out of nowhere.

"I... had just quit." Pepper tried to explain. "Actually so-"

"Yeah, so we're not-" Tony tried.

"You don't have to do that. I-I heard the whole thing."

"You should get lost."

"I was here first. Get a roof."

Rhodey ended up keeping the War Machine suit, and both Rhodey and Tony got medals. But not before Tony had a little chat with Fury about his position in SHIELD and the Avengers Initiative.

"Iron Man: Yes. Tony Stark: Not Recommended."

"Which leads us to believe that this juncture we'd only like to use you as a consultant."

"I will waive my customary retainer in exchange for... a small favor. Rhodey and I, are being honored in Washington, and... we need a presenter."

"I'll see what I can do."

That agreement was the first of many, it was the beginning of a long and difficult but beneficial relationship between Tony Stark and SHIELD. It was also the beginning to the end for Tony's secrets.

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**E/N~ So I Hope You Liked It. I Wish I Could Have Put More On His Powers In There, But I just Couldn't Think Of Anything Really. NExt Chapter Is Finally Getting To The AVENGERS! I'm So Excited! It's Going To Be Really Long, I've Already Started On It & I'm Probably Going To Split It Up. But So Far I'm Already At 2k, But I Probably Wont Let It Get To 4k. That's A Bit Too Long For Me. XD **

**& Now For The Begging Part Of The E/N: PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE! & Thanx For Reading! X3**

******Oh Before I Forget! I Have A Poll Up On My Profile About Magneto Being A Part Of This Story. Just Need Your Guys/Girls Opinions For The Future. XD**


	8. The Avengers Pt 1

**A/N~ Hey Guys… I Know I'm Late. But I Have A Semi Decent Excuse… First, My Internet Has Been Messed Up Since The Weekend & I Couldn't Get Enough Internet To Even Upload The Chapter. & My Computer's Been Shutting Down My Internet Browser Like Ever 5 Minutes For Some Reason. I Finally Got It To Stop, But Now I'm Like A Day Late With This Chapter. I'm Really Sorry Guys. But Here It Is. We're Finally Getting To The Avengers. This Is Quite A Bit Longer Than The Last Chapter & I Think The Next Part's Going To Be Even LONGER. But I'm Not Done With It So Who Knows.**

**Also I've Got The Avenger's Movie Downloaded Onto My Computer So I Can Watch It ANYTIME I Want. & Force Other's To Watch It Too. My Brother, I'm Embarrassed To Say, Hasn't Seen It Yet, So The Next Time I See Him I'm Going To Tie Him To A Chair, Tape His Eyes Open & Force Him To Watch It. XD Anyway, ENJOY! X3 **

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**Disclaimer~ Nope, It's Definitely Not Mine. **

**Warning~ Uh… The Stuff From The Movie & Something I Didn't Mention For The Iron Man Movies: Spoilers For The Movie… Kind Obvious, But Some People Are That Oblivious... Personally I Find That Kind Of Cute. ;3**

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**_Ch.8_**

**_The Avengers Pt. 1_**

**_~3,363~_**

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"_I will waive my customary retainer in exchange for... a small favor. Rhodey and I, are being honored in Washington, and... we need a presenter."_

"_I'll see what I can do." _

_That agreement was the first of many, it was the beginning of a long and difficult but beneficial relationship between Tony Stark and SHIELD. It was also the beginning to the end for Tony's secrets._

Tony had just finished installing a prototype Arc Reactor and turning on his tower in Manhattan when Agent Coulson came in.

"Security breach!" Tony exclaimed and turned to Pepper. "It's on you."

"Phil! Come in." Pepper greeted the agent happily.

"Phil?" Tony said confused.

"I can't stay." Coulson said.

"Uh, his first name is Agent." Tony said like Pepper had just called the man Clark Gregg.

Tony and Pepper got up, glasses of Champaign still in their hands, to meet the agent at the stairs in front of the elevator. Tony showed his displeasure towards the agents arrival, but Coulson ignored it, in favor of instead handing over a tablet, to Pepper, who, in turn, handed it to Tony, saying he needed to look it over. Pepper made a comment about the Initiative, which she covered up terribly.

"Is this about the Avengers?" Pepper asked and Coulson looked at her sharply. "...Which I-I know nothing about."

"Pfft. The Avengers Initiate was scrapped, I thought." Tony said as he walked down the stairs, setting up the tablet he was handed. "And I didn't even qualify."

"I didn't know that either." Pepper denied.

"Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self obsessed, don't play well with others." Tony continued, walking backwards towards his work table.

"That I did know." Pepper acknowledged with a tilt of the head and a small smile.

"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Coulson assured them.

"Whatever." Tony said, before calling out for Pepper, flicking his fingers in a 'come here' gesture. "Miss Potts, got a sec."

"Half a moment." She said, holing up a finger before she followed Tony, her hips swaying with each step.

Tony typed on the screen of the tablet, hooking it into his system and holographic projections.

"You know, I thought, we were having a moment."

"I was having 12% of a moment."

Tony gave her a look but she kept talking. She asked what all the information that was on the tablet was and he put the information up in holographic windows. It was indeed information on the Avengers Initiative, the actual people/Demigod/Giant Green Rage Monster who were wanted for it. Tony's eyes were glued to the footage of a large green man(Hulk) destroying military tanks. Pepper said she'd be leaving that night to DC, she gave Tony the _incentive_ he needed to work on... whatever SHIELD wanted him to work on and a kiss, then left with Coulson while Tony got to work.

It was several hours later while Tony was sitting on the couch and reading up on Thermonuclear Astrophysics, it was a major part of Dr. Selvig's work with the Tesseract, when JARVIS informed him that he had visitors. Wondering who it could be who would visit him so late, Tony put his readings away.

"Who is it JARVIS?" Tony asked, not moving to get up off the couch.

"_It is Mr. Xavier and Mrs. Grey coming up in the elevator._" JARVIS answered.

Tony's eyes widened in surprise and he got up as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. Jean and Charles came out, Jean behind Charles and pushing his wheel chair, even though it was the one Tony had built for him and was fully electric.

"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise." Tony exclaimed with a large smile on his face as he walked around the couch and came to stand in front of his long time friends who he considered family. "What are you doing here?"

Jean didn't answer as she came around the Charles's chair and gave Tony a big hug. Tony had never really liked hugs, they always reminded him of the ones he never got from his father and that he couldn't hug his mother anymore, but he _had_ missed Jean's hugs, they were always warm and comforting, reminding him of the hugs he _did_ get from his mother. Tony hugged her back then released her with another smile, he shook the Professor's hand, the man wasn't that fond of hugs either, he didn't want to trouble people with bending over to reach him.

"We heard you had a tower here and came for a visit when the news said you'd be in town." Jean answered as she looked around. "It's so good to see you Tony. I see your love for the glamourous hasn't quelled at all."

Tony could hear the teasing in her voice and smirked.

"Yeah well, it would have been more, but Pepper toned it down a bit." Tony sighed dramatically. "I had planned to paint the whole building red and gold, but she said no."

Jean and Charles chuckled along with Tony and he led them toward the couch and offered them drinks. Tony didn't want to leave as he enjoyed their company, so he used his telekinesis to grab two glasses of water for him and Charles, and a coke for Jean. He always felt comfortable with them, and knowing that Pepper was on a plane to another state made him even more comfortable with where he was and didn't feel the need to restrict himself with his powers.

"It is good to see you Anthony, it has been too long." Charles said taking the floating glass of water. "Thank you."

"I agree. Far too long." Tony said. "Now that we have a tower here in New York, I'll be here more often, I may even be able to visit you guys every now and then."

"Oh that would be wonderful." Charles said. "Our school has expanded quite a bit since you left all those years ago. We have many students with many varying powers. It would be a very special treat if you were to visit. Perhaps you could even teach a class or two?"

Jean chuckled. "Oh just ignore him Tony, he's been trying to get every old student to come back and teach."

"Can't fault an old man for trying." Charles smirked. "We have far too many students for the amount of teachers we have."

Tony smiled at the family like banter. He had missed this a lot. He had missed his _family_ a lot.

"It can't be any worse than when I was there." Tony said. "We only had four teaches then. How many do you have now?"

"We have about 7 teachers now, but we have upwards of 35 students." Charles sighed. "We could really use any help we could get."

Tony's eyes widened at the number of students. That was over three times the students there had been when he was there.

"Sure sounds like it." Tony said with a whistle. "I would be honored to help out with classes whenever I'm there. Like a special guest or something."

"Oh thank you Anthony, that would be a great help." Charles said with a grateful smile.

Charles looked over to Jean with a small smirk, causing Jean rolled her eyes. There was an obvious 'I told you so' that was left unsaid between the two. Tony smiled at them, Jean obviously thought Tony would be against helping with the teaching, seeing as he had never really liked school all that much, but in truth, Tony loved to teach, he taught Pepper how to work the new Stark Phone, the Stark Tablet, and all the stark appliance he made. He was very good at teaching, in fact, more patient than most people would think.

"Unfortunately that wont be for a while though." Tony said with a sigh and a small smile. "There seems to be a crisis at the moment."

"A crisis?" Jean asked, suddenly at attention. "What's wrong?"

"Well, It's confidential..." Tony trailed off then smiled when Jean raised her eyebrow as if to say 'So?' "Have you heard of the Tesseract?"

Jean shook her head but Charles nodded.

"It was a powerful cube used in the 40s, but it was lost in the ocean." Charles says. "Why?"

"My father found it while looking for Captain America." Tony said grimly. "Now it's been stolen by an evil Demigod who's trying to take over the world."

Jean and Charles looked at each other then back at Tony, noticing how serious he was: Tony was hardly ever serious, which meant this was real and a big deal.

"And?" Jean probed for more information.

"SHIELD is putting together a team to fight this supposed God. They want Iron Man." Tony said, then smiled sarcastically. "Technically they don't want _me_, but apparently they changed their minds."

"And what would you like us to do?" Charles asked. "The X-Men can be mobilized and ready for battle within the hour."

"No." Tony said, sounding aloof, surprising them. "I simply want you to take your students and go on a field trip. The West Coast is nice this time of year. You can use my mansion if you want, save some money on boarding. Though If you really have 30 plus students they'll probably have to bunk up three to a room."

"_By my accounts Sir, if there are 48 persons or less, then, using the pool house, they would only have to bunk two to a room._" JARVIS interrupted. "_And that does not count the 2 master bedrooms._"

"Well, there you go!" Tony said, spreading his arms out wide with a smile. "You don't have more than 48 people do you?"

"Tony what do you mean?" Jean asked confused. "You don't want us to help?"

"No, I don't." Tony said bluntly. "You don't need to be in this fight. Exceptionally with SHIELD involved."

"And what is wrong with SHIELD?" Jean asked.

"There's too much wrong with them. Though what involves you is that I'm pretty sure they aren't mutant friendly." Tony said. "I'm sure that if they caught wind of your school, they wouldn't hesitate to raid it and capture every mutant for experimentations, not caring that some of them are confused children." Tony scowled for a second before shrugging his dislike for SHIELD off. "Luckily, I've been hiding you and the school from their director's eye. They have no clue the school even exists."

"How can you be so sure that they aren't mutant friendly?" Jean asked. "Have they shown dislike for mutants?"

"My father was an original founder of SHIELD." Tony said emotionlessly.

They were all quite for a minute as that sunk in. Both Charles and Jean knew of Howard's opinions about mutants, and it wasn't pretty. They couldn't blame Tony for wanting them as far away from SHIELD as possible.

"All right, we'll set up a field trip. When do you think we should leave?" Charles agreed.

"As soon as possible." Tony said. "You can use my jets to get there and I'll arrange for cars to pick you up."

"Oh now, you can't do everything for us." Charles said with a smirk. "You already give us so much with that $10,000 donation each month."

Tony blushed a bit. He did, in fact, donate 10k every month to the institute under a false name. He'd never thought they'd realize it was from him, then again, he should have realized that Charles would have figured it out.

"Yeah well..." Tony said, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand with a small smile. "It's the least I can do for my family."

"_Sir, I hate to interrupt, but You have a message from Director Fury._" JARVIS said apologetically. "_Loki has been spotted in Germany. SHIELD is already on their way there._"

"All right." Tony said to the ceiling the turned to his company. "Looks like Iron Man is needed."

They stood up, Tony and Jean hugged again, and he and Charles shook hands again as well.

"It was really good seeing you Tony." Jean said, planting a kiss on Tony's cheek.

"I agree. I will definitely come and visit you once this is all over." Tony smiled and saw them to the elevator.

"Take care of yourself Anthony." Charles spoke up, just before the door closed. "We will meet again."

Tony nodded at them and once the doors closed he sighed.

"JARVIS, see to it that the jets are prepared for take off and the Malibu house is cleaned and ready for their arrival. And that there are cars there to pick them up when they leave." He paused for a second, contemplating something. "Make the rides limos, let the kids ride in style and enjoy themselves."

"_Of course Sir._" JARVIS replied softly. "_Sir, it seems that the Fury has sent only a single SHIELD Quinjet to deal with the Loki incident._"

"That's probably got Captain America and Black Widow on it. I doubt they'd send someone like Dr. Banner into that heavily populated area."

"_I agree Sir._" JARVIS said. "_Perhaps and intervention from Iron Man would be called for?_" Tony could practically hear the smirk in JARVIS's tone.

"I love the way you think JARVIS." Tony said as he walked to the arming platform. "Okay then, lets see what this Loki has up his sleeves."

The suit formed around him as he walked and he took off in the direction of Berlin. When he arrived a few hours later (god he loved how fast his suit could travel), he saw that the good old Captain America was having a bit of trouble. Hijacking the Quinjets' stereo systems, Tony blasted music though the speakers and took down Loki in one blast, effectively forcing Loki(Tony likes Reindeer Games better) to surrender.

The transport back to SHIELD HQ was going smoothly until the Quinjet was rocked by a sudden storm. Loki talked for the first time since being capture.

"Scared of a little lightening?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows."

Then the Asgardian Thor came and took Loki. Tony charged after them, with Captain America right on his heals.

"I'd sit this one out Cap."

"I don't see how I can."

"These guys come from legend, they're basically Gods."

"There's only one God ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

Tony tackled Thor into the forest and they battled. Tony practically roared in exhilaration when Thor hit him with lightening. He channeled the electricity to his gauntlets and attacked.

"_Power at 400% capacity._"

"How 'bout that."

Tony blasted Thor with the collected energy. They fought a relatively even battle, and Tony was even having a bit of fun: he hardly ever fought someone that was his equal. Then good ol' Captain America showed up and put a stop to it. They made nice and headed back to SHIELD HQ, Loki a prisoner once again.

The first thing Tony did when he got on the Helicarrier was run directly into Agent Coulson. He was pulled off the side to be brought up to snuff on the situation, since he technically hadn't been called in, though Tony knew everything there was to know on what was going on.

"You hacked us... again." It wasn't a question, Coulson knew better than that.

"I wouldn't call it hacking, as that implies I had to actually work to get it." Tony shrugged.

"You know what's going on then." Coulson sighed. "Saves me time explaining. Come on, everyone's on the deck."

They started walking down the halls, Tony following the agent, because if he was being honest with himself, even he got lost in the maze they called HQ sometimes.

"So I heard the cellist moved back to Portland?" Tony brought up conversationally. "How you dealing with that?"

Despite everything Tony said about the Agent, he really did like him. Coulson was his official liaison with SHIELD: he was the only one Tony even remotely trusted from the spy organization. Though the man was an _unknown, _they were practically friends.

"I'm okay," Coulson said, not sounding convincingly at all. "She got a good offer there that she couldn't turn down."

"Are you going to visit her at all?"

"I don't know." Coulson answered with a shrug. "I might, I'd need to find some time to."

"Well, after all this is over you should request a weekend off." Tony smirked at the man.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to do that." Coulson said, then smirked himself. "Maybe I can acquisition to take a Quinjet down there and sweep her off her feet."

"I doubt Fury would condone that. Maybe you could use one of my Jets." Tony offered. "I know Pepper would be all for it."

"I don't know about that." Coulson said, but sounded like he was actually thinking the idea over.

He and Tony talked more on him visiting his lady friend down in Portland. Even though Tony always refused to be called nostalgic, he was feeling a bit nostalgic for visiting people after his surprise visit from Charles and Jean earlier that night. They were just entering the deck when Tony heard a scratchy, yet intelligent sounding voice ask what Loki could be using Iridium for.

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony said nonchalantly as he and Coulson walked in. He turned to Coulson and lowered his voice. "So I'm just saying: Take a weekend and I'll fly you to Portland. Keep love alive."

Tony and Coulson split up once in the room and Tony headed to the front of the room while the Agent headed to the back. Tony was talking and joking, two of his favorite past times. He joked about Fury's eye and caught someone playing video games. Classic.

"That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice... but we did."

After a few jokes Tony went back to the main subject, Loki, the Tesseract, and foiling a plan for world domination. All in a days work for one Tony Stark, however, Tony wasn't working alone on this and he knew he needed to play nice with everyone. But just because he was playing nice, didn't mean he trusted then, or SHIELD for that matter, any more than he could blast them with his repulsors. Even if he did semi-trust Coulson, SHIELD and these strangers were another story.

Tony planted a hacking bug on the deck and had JARVIS start breaking into all of SHIELD's encrypted files right away. Usually he would isolate what he needed to find and just hack that server, but now that he had the chance to, he was going to hack every one of their files and see what they were getting into. Why they had the Tesseract in the first place and what they were really using it's power for. There was no way Fury was _only_ trying to harness it's power for a clean energy. It didn't make sense, Fury was up to something.

Tony and Dr. Banner got into a conversation on how Loki and Dr. Selvig were going to open another portal. He was a bit new to Thermonuclear Astrophysics, but had been reading up on it when Charles stopped by the night before. Sure he hadn't mastered the subject, he'd need another few nights to do that, but he had a little more than a basic understanding of it after the few hours of reading he had looked into the subject.

There he met Dr. Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk, or The Other Guy, as Dr. Banner called him. Tony truly was fascinated by the man: he was a genius and a saint for all he did, but when his anger got a hold of him, you better watch out. Tony was also very interested in Hulk himself: Hulk couldn't be just anger, that would be too sad.

"It's good to meet you Dr. Banner. Your work, on anti-electron collision is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"...Thanks."

When Fury came in and said that Dr. Banner was _only_ there to help find the cube Tony instantly became skeptical of the real reason Dr. Banner was really there. There was no way Fury would bring the Doctor onboard for one reason only. _No_. _Way_. Though Tony did play along and went to the lab, so he could keep an eye on the Doctor. People like them: smart, intelligent... outcasts, they needed to watch out for each other.

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**E/N~ So I Hope You Liked This Chapter & The Scenes I Added. I Really Feel That Tony Would Protect Those People Who Are As Close As Family, So I Hope It Wasn't Terribly OOC. & The Same Thing With Coulson, Because Even If He Doesn't Call The Man Phil, They Are Still Friends, & Tony Doesn't Have Many Of Those. X3 **

**Also, Because This Was A Day Late, I'll Give You Guys A Sneak Peek At The Next Chapter. As A Gift From Me To You. XD**

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_Tony couldn't take it anymore, he was about to explode, or explode something. He got up and quickly left the room. He let himself wander the helicarrier, not caring where he wound up. No one got in his way, he tried to keep his face emotionless, but he was pissed and still grieving: _

'_How dare Fury use Phil to try and get us riled up.' Tony thought as he walked a little faster. _

_After a minute of walking, Tony found himself standing in the room where Loki had been imprisoned. The room where Loki escaped. The room where Loki killed Phil. Where Phil died._

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**I Hope You Enjoyed This Sneak Peek Of Chapter 9: The Avengers Pt. 2, Brought To You By The Voices In My Head… They Surprisingly Sound Like JARVIS & Dummy. XD **

**Please Review & Tell Me What You Think! OH & I Still Have A Poll Up On My Profile About Whether Or Not Magneto Should Be In This. Loki Definitely Is, So There's An Option On There That Regards That. **


	9. The Avengers Pt 2

**A/N~ Hey Guys, I Know I'm Horribly Late With This Chapter. I Wont Bore You With My Excuses For Now. Maybe At The End. But For Now, Just Read On & Enjoy. This Is By FAR The Longest Chapter, I Almost Split It Into 2, But Then It Would Have Taken Even Longer To Get This Up.**

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**Disclaimer~ Not Mine, Never Was, & Hopefully Will Be Later In Life… But Probably Not. **

**Warning~ Emotional Tony, BAMF!Tony, Spoilers For The Movie… Obviously. Enjoy! X3**

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_**Ch.9**_

_**The Avengers Pt. 2**_

_**~3,802~**_

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_When Fury came in and said that Dr. Banner was only there to help find the cube Tony instantly became skeptical of the reason Dr. Banner was there. There was no way Fury would bring the Doctor onboard for one reason only. No way. Though Tony did play along and went to the lab so he could keep an eye on the Doctor. People like them: smart, intelligent, outcasts, needed to watch out for each other. _

They went to the lab and began tracking the cube using Loki's staff. It wasn't that hard, the only problem was waiting factor. Tony wasn't a very patient man. He and Dr. Banner talked, and Tony tried to invoke one of Banner's 'episodes.' He really wanted to meet Hulk. Then Captain Rogers came in and spoiled the fun. But they did get some theorizing done now that Rogers was there. Though the conversation escalated the instant Tony mentioned his decryption key and hacking SHIELD.

Tony had always heard great things about Captain Rogers: how he was a hero, how he was such a great man, and how no one could ever beat him. But Tony failed to see what was so great about the jerk. He was a soldier, a goodie two-shoes who followed nothing but orders. Tony would bet his tower to Pepper that the man would jump out of a plane without a parachute if he was ordered to.

Once Rogers left, Tony and Banner got back to work. They talked while working, and ended up talking about pretty heavy things: why they were alive, how Banner's accident saved his life, etc. When Fury came in later that morning, obviously aware of Tony's hacking, Tony replied with his smart mouth, only this time he had Banner to back him up and actually answer the question asked. Rogers came in shortly after Fury with a 'Phase 2' weapon.

Eventually everyone came into the lab and it all went to chaos. Banner was arguing with Romanoff, and Thor was booming at Fury, and Rogers was threatening Tony.

"Are you boys really that naive? SHIELD monitors potential threats."

"Captain America is on threat watch?"

"We all are."

"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?"

"Stark so help me God, you make one more wise crack..."

"Threat! Verbal threat! I feel threatened!"

It was complete chaos. But then Banner made a valid point.

"I mean what are we? A team? No no no we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time bomb."

And when Tony made one little comment about the man letting off some steam Rogers just had to jump at him like a Chihuahua yapping at his heals. He was pissing Tony off so bad that Tony almost wanted to throw the man out of the window using his telekinesis, knowing that he'd probably survive would satiate his guilt, but there were too many people in the room for him to lose control like that. So he sat back and took it, returning it with his famous Tony Stark snark.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

Though Tony wasn't lying when he said that, he couldn't bare to tell the whole truth. He'd almost said it at the end, _almost_, but stopped himself before he could say 'mutant.' Fury was in the room, as were Romanoff, Rogers, Banner, and Thor, all _unknowns_, and very dangerous.

Then everything went to chaos... or since it was already chaos, it went to Hell, and not in a pretty little hand-basket either. It went to Hell in one fiery explosion, literally. They had gotten the location of the Tesseract, but just as Banner was reading the coordinates, the third engine of the Helicarrier blew up. Tony ran for his suit, Rogers right behind him. Fury asked over the Com if Tony could get to the engine and try to get it going again, they needed the carrier to stay in the air long enough to get them over the water and land.

Tony got his suit and flew to the engine, meeting Rodgers there. They began working on getting the relays out of overload position and getting the super conducting coolant systems back on line. Unfortunately the only thing Rogers could tell him was that the stupid thing ran on electricity: a 4 year-old could have told him that. And not a smart ass 4 year-old like he had been, a stupid one that couldn't figure out how to put a ball in a hole and instead tried to but a square in a triangle. Rogers was almost completely useless, he'd rather have had Happy there to help him. He had to explain everything to the man out of time and he briefly considered just using his telekinesis to do it and have Rogers help someone else.

After nearly ten minutes of mind numbingly painful explanation and instruction, they finally got the coolant systems turned back on and the relays were all out of overload position and intact. It was a miracle the man hadn't needed an instructional video. Now Tony only needed to remove the debris and get the rotor moving again before it would start. However, the rotor needed a kick start, which he would have to do manually. Rodgers seemed a bit concerned that he would die while push starting the rotor, but he had told him he would be fine.

"See that red lever? It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it. Wait for my word."

They were simple enough instructions and Rogers seemed to be pacified by them, though when the time came for him to actually pull the lever, he was apparently to preoccupied to see that Tony was indeed about to be sliced and diced. Though the panic in Rogers' voice seemed to entail that he was facing something, perhaps armed soldiers, judging by the gun shots he could hear over the Com. So Tony patiently while he was loosing his hold on the rotor in front of him and being slammed agains the one behind him. In just under a second Tony had gone from pushing one rotor, to being pushed by another, to being thrown around like a rag doll. Luckily he used his telekinesis to minimize the damage on himself. He was about to use his powers to pull the lever himself, but after a few spins in the blades Rodgers managed to pull that damn red lever and set him free. His suit was wrecked and barely flew, but he managed to get it into the opening where Steve was, indeed being shot at, and flew into the hall, effectively taking out the shooter. It wasn't until a little while later, after Loki had gotten away, that they got the bad news.

Coulson was dead. Killed by Loki while trying to stop him.

When Tony heard Fury tell them that the medics had called it, his heart nearly stopped and he felt the tears prick his eyes. Tony instantly began to shut down, so he could deal with the over whelming wave of emotional grief that was consuming him. He closed his face plate and stalked off, leaving Steve standing alone on the rafter of the semi destroyed engine room.

Tony went straight to where the Iron Man suit was kept, though the suit had taken a lot of damage and couldn't fly without some work, the hydraulics were working fine, so he had no trouble getting there quickly and without meeting anyone who wanted to talk to him. He took his time getting out of his suit, allowing himself to gain control of his emotions. If he wasn't careful, he could easily suck the all energy right out of the Helicarrier and make it drop into the ocean: not exactly a good thing since that's what he had just stopped from happening.

"_Agent Coulson is down._"

"_They called it._"

Fury's words rang in his head as he walked towards the deck. Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the lights flickered: everyone else would put it down as damage to the circuitry, but Tony knew better. He felt the energy enter his body, he would use it to try and hold back his emotions: create an electrical barrier so they wouldn't get the better of him.

When he entered, the first person he saw was Fury, then Rogers. Fury was standing, his hands clasped behind his back and looking away from him. Rogers was sitting at the table, not in his uniform anymore, but a tight fitting, blue, long sleeve shirt, also facing away from him. Tony walked around Rogers and took a seat a few spots away, not looking at either man and not saying single a word.

When Fury threw the bloody cards down on the table, Tony felt his emotions scream in his head, nearly busting down his barriers. He flinched as Rogers picked one of them up, though neither of the two men noticed. The light flickered again and Tony knew he needed to let some of his emotions out, if only to gain control.

"There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people... see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles we never could. Phil Coulson, died, still believing in that idea: in heros."

Tony couldn't take it anymore, he was about to explode, or explode something. He got up and quickly left the room. He let himself wander the helicarrier, not caring where he wound up. No one got in his way, instantly turing down another hallway or into a room when they saw him. _I must look like hell walking._ He thought. He tried to keep his face emotionless, but he was pissed and still grieving:

'_How dare Fury use Phil to try and get us riled up._' Tony thought as he walked a little faster.

After a minute of walking, it could have been hours for all Tony knew, Tony found himself standing in the room where Loki had been imprisoned. The room where Loki escaped. The room where Loki killed Phil. Where Phil died.

Once Tony realized where he was, he looked down and saw the blood stain, and he lost it. Tears fell freely down his face and he used all the self control he had not to destroy the Helicarrier. The room he was in; however, faced a bit of damage. All the electricity that he'd absorbed flew out of him, making the lights in the room go out, as well as all the cameras, fortunately for him. Tony grabbed the railing to try and regain some of his composer, the metal; however, didn't stand a chance: it crunched under his hands.

Tony growled in anger and ripped the dented metal from its frame, throwing it to the side. He fell to his knees, leaving dents in the metal floor, grief overwhelming him. His telekinesis ran wild, dents appeared in the walls and ceiling, as if Rodgers or Thor; someone extremely strong, had punched them.

His grief faded with each dent, leaving behind a rage that rivaled Hulks. Tony dried his eyes, and now in control of his powers, he fixed the room a bit, making it similar to what it had been before he'd destroyed it, all the while thinking up ways to find Loki and kill him. Just as he finished fixing the room, Rogers came in, asking question about his fallen friend.

Tony answered distractedly, as he was currently thinking about how it would feel to shove bamboo shoots under the Demigod's fingernails. Tony let his anger, and the bit of grief he knew would always be in his heart, get the better of him: insulting his fallen friend. Then Rogers made the soldier comment.

"Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

"We are NOT soldiers!"

Rogers really had it coming to him, but Tony refrained from hoisting the war hero over the center of the room by his ankles, opening the air lock, and dropping him out of the Helicarrier. They continued to talk, well Tony talked and Tony figured out what Loki's game was, Rogers just added commentary.

"He made it personal."

"That's not the point."

"That _is_ the point. That's _Loki's_ point. He hit us right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart."

"Yeah, divide and concur's... great and all, but, he knows he has to take us out to win right? _That's_ what he wants. He wants to beat us. He wants to be _seen_ doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right, I caught his act in Stuttgart."

"Yeah, but that's just previews, this is, this is opening night, and Loki, he's a full till diva. He want's flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to skies with his name plastered... son of a bitch."

Tony raced out of the room, Rogers following behind him, obviously unaware of what Tony had figured out. Tony went straight to his suit taking pieces apart so he could work on it. It was easy to fix the repulsors on his boots, they had just gotten a little shaken up, a few loose wires, what was tricky was the HUD, it had been cracked and there were a lot more than just a few loose wires. His helmet also needed some welding, as it had a few cracks and dents that wouldn't allow it to fly properly. It was going to be difficult making a rush patch job with the limited tool that were available to him. Plus he didn't want SHIELD to try and steel his secrets.

He had just started to rewire the HUD when Rogers finally asked him what he was doing.

"I'm fixing my suit Cap." Tony replied distractedly, no matter how easy he made rewiring the most complicated helmet in existence seem, it still took a lot of concentration.

"Why?" Rogers asked. "What did you figure out back there?"

"I know where Loki's setting up his portal to another dimension." Tony said quickly, splicing two wires together with relative ease.

"What? Where?" Rogers demanded.

"My tower in Manhattan." Tony said. "A 'monument built to the skies with his name plastered on it?' My name is plastered on my tower. It points straight to the sky. He also needs a large power source to jump start the cube."

"And you have that prototype reactor powering your tower." Rogers finished, now realizing what Tony was saying. "How long will it take to make your suit fly worthy?"

"About 10-20 minutes." Tony said, pausing in his rewiring to look up at Rogers. "Go ahead of me, I'm faster than any of the Quinjets, I'll meet you there."

With a nod Rogers left Tony to his work. Without someone hovering over him, Tony was able to work much faster and that 10-20 minutes was cut down to only needed it to fly, he had other suits he could wear in his Tower, and luckily that's where he was headed. Once everything was running semi-smoothly he took off, leaving at the same time as Rogers, along with Black Widow and Hawkeye, in the Quinjet.

It took Tony about 30 minutes to get to Manhattan from where they were in the ocean, it would take the Quinjet another 20 before they got there, so he was on his own for now. When he came into range of the tower, he could see the machine on the roof of his tower, JARVIS announced that he'd already shut down the reactor, but the cube was already running. Tony called out to Dr. Selvig, but the man was under the same type of mind control as Hawkeye and was completely off his rocker.

Tony blasted the machine, only to have his attack bounce off like a ball on a blacktop. Tony tried draining it with his electrokinesis, but simply feeling the amount of energy the cube had, he knew it was impossible that way. He tried shutting it off with his telekinesis, but it did little good, even his telekinesis couldn't breach the barrier, as Jarvis soon reminded him. He knew that the portal would open, and soon, but he spotted Loki on his, _HIS_, balcony standing there for all the world to see, not seeming like a crazed, murdering psychopath.

Tony flew down to his arming/de-arming platform, having JARVIS take the dented and damaged suit off him, and getting the Mark VII ready to deploy. He strolled into the tower like he owned it... because he did, meeting Loki inside. Despite the anger Tony was feeling for the Demigod about killing his friend, the conversation was actually quite pleasant. They threw witty banter back and forth, Loki, being the God of lies and all, matched Tony's sarcasm evenly, not something Tony was used to. But then Loki tried to brainwash him, and even though it failed, it sorta scared Tony there for a second, though he wouldn't admit it even under torture, he'd been there, he'd done that, he'd even gotten the damn T-shirt.

Just as the the scepter hit his chest, he felt the energy try to flow into his reactor, he used his electrokinesis to push the energy back, not sure if it could transfer from his reactor to him or not, but he didn't want to take any chances. And seeing the confused look on Loki's face, he decided to play with it.

"This usually works."

"Well, performance issues you know. Not uncommon. One out of five."

Loki then proceeded to throw Tony out of his tower. Tony had, luckily, had JARVIS deploy the Mark VII just before his departure from the tower via window, though he knew it wouldn't make it to him on time with the speed he was falling. So he used his telekinesis to slow himself down by grabbing a hold of his clothes and pulling up on them. He'd done it before to break his falls in the suit, but the suit was much easier to grab a hold of, seeing as it was solid metal and encasing his whole body, his clothes; however, were flimsy and very easily tearable and they only covered parts of his body, making it much harder to grab ahold of and pull up on. But it was enough that the suit caught up with him and assembled around him, preventing him from becoming a billionaire pancake on the sidewalk.

Tony flew back up to the window he'd just been thrown out of and blasted Loki. The portal opened and the battle began. The Quinjet arrived a minute later with the Calvary, attacking Loki who fled the tower after battling Thor. The battle was brutal, and Tony used his mutant powers as much as he could. Tony didn't have time to worry about people finding out he was a mutant, he had a world to save.

Tony easily knocked Chitauri off their flying chariots using his telekinesis and he healed any little cut he got using his electrokinesis, he also used his electrokinesis to keep himself awake and attentive during the hours of battle. He used his powers to stop rubble from falling on unsuspecting citizens, and directing it to fall on chitauri that were on the ground. It was a lot to bare and put a lot of stress on Tony's mind, but he pushed the headache away and focused on the Nuke that Fury had just said was heading towards New York.

Tony knew that he wouldn't be able to disarm the Nuke before it reached New York, but he could redirect it; and there was a large portal to another pocket of space conveniently placed above his tower. Lucky him. But then he heard Romanoff speak into the Com giving them the best news they'd heard all day.

"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!"

"No wait!"

"Stark these things are still coming!"

"I've got a Nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."

Tony grabbed the Nuke, he could feel the power the missile held even though his suit, and he knew he needed to hurry up and get this away from the millions of people below him in the streets. He flew quickly as he pushed the missile up towards the portal. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind that he wasn't going to make it out of this alive, but he'd damn well try.

He had JARVIS call Pepper. They were dating, but she still didn't know he was a mutant, and he realized that he wanted at least one person that wasn't a mutant to know. He was sure that Phil had known, but Phil was dead, and he'd trusted the man not to tell anyone, which he probably had, because he liked knowing things Fury didn't, even if he didn't seem like it. Thinking of his fallen friend almost made him forget what he was thinking about in the first place. The call ended: Pepper didn't pick up her phone, and that wasn't something you told the person you loved over the phone.

When he entered the portal the first thing he notice was how quiet it was. It was dead silent quieter than a library, and Tony couldn't stand how quiet those things were, so to say that he despised the quiet of space was like saying Fury's wardrobe was full of color.

The second thing he noticed was the cold. He knew that space was pure nothingness, no sound and no heat. It was colder than ice, and colder than Fury's stare when Tony had dyed the man's eyepatch pink. The cold seeped though the suit and down to his bones. He could feel the Arc Reactor in his chest begin to fail, the pain almost instantly came as the shrapnel started to move towards his heart. Though it was slower than it had been when Stane pulled his Reactor out as his heart wasn't beating as fast since he was dying.

He watched with lidded eyes as the Nuke found his target, the fiery blast bringing him out of his daze. His eyes instantly snapped open and he began to yank on his suit with his telekinesis, trying to drag himself back though the portal. He could tell that he didn't have enough energy to pull himself back, so in a risky move, Tony absorbed the energy from his Arc Reactor and channeled it to his telekinesis, boosting it just enough that he was able to pull himself though the portal just as it closed. In his exhaustion and relief, Tony passed out, the last thing he saw was the portal zap closed completely before his eyes closed. His last thoughts before the darkness took him was that he hoped someone caught him.

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**E/N~ Okay So What'd You Think? I Hope You Liked It. If You Have Any Questions, Just Ask. XD **

**Excuse Time! Okay, So Monday Was Hectic For Me. I Had Class Till 10:30pm & A Crap Load Of Homework… Still Do In Fact. Then On Tuesday My Life(& Family) Has Decided To Hate Me. I'm Practically Disowning My Mother Because Of The Way She's Treating Me, & Now My Grandfather Is Joining Her In Trying To Make Me Feel Horrible. Luckily, I'm Not Much Of A Family Person Anyway. & My Brother Doesn't Hate Me & That's All That Matters. **

**OH! & I Started To Watch The Show **_**Sherlock**_** On **_**BBC.**_** It's Fucking AMAZING! I Spent 10.6 Hours Saturday Night Watching Most Of The 2nd & 3rd Ep. From The First Season & The 2nd Season. I Cried When It Ended! I REALLY Want To See The 3rd Season! If You've Never Watched The Show, You Totally Should. If You Like Tony's Snark I Think You'll Love It. Sherlock Is AMAZINGLY Snarky. & Each Ep. Is Like 2 Hours Long! It's Practically A MOVIE! XD**

**Okay I'll Give You Guys Another Sneak Peek Since I Was So Late.**

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"_What condition?" Bruce asked, for all he knew Tony only had the Arc Reactor, no other health problems. _

"_Oh, it's nothing, much." Tony waved off. _

"Sir, cuts in the veins around your heart is not 'nothing,' if you were to pull your chest the wrong way, tugging on a larger cut, you could rip the vein in half, making you bleed internally._" JARVIS said, sounding exasperated, like he had explained this a dozen times already. _

"_Please JARVIS, don't be so dramatic." After a few seconds of disapproving silence from JARVIS, Tony caved like a small child being glared at, and if Bruce didn't know any better, he would have swore that JARVIS gave a sigh of relief. "Fine, I'll rest." _

"You need to change out the current Reactor first._" JARVIS ordered. _

"_Geez, I thought I was in charge." Tony grumbled good-naturedly, then looked at Bruce's hands. "Bruce, hold up your hands for me." _

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**So I Hope You Liked The Sneak Peek. Sorry Again About The Delay. For Some Reason, Life Hates Me Right Now. I'll Get Over It Though. Please Review & Tell Me What You Think! X3 **


	10. Unexpected Morning Visitors

**A/N~ So I Bet You Think This Is Late Right? Well I've Decided That I'm Going To Upload On Tuesdays Instead Of Mondays. I Realize I Should HAve Done That In The Beginning Since I'm So Busy On Mondays & Not Nearly As Busy On Tuesdays. (I Literally Face Palmed When I Realized How Stupid I Was Being.) ;P **

**Anyway, This Is Finally The Chapter Where I Start Writing My Own Stuff & Not Just Adding To The Movies. I Was So Excited To Write This! XD **

**Also, Another Announcement! Though It Has Absolutely NOTHING To Do With The Story. But Yesterday Was My 20th BIRTHDAY! So That's Why I Didn't Post Yesterday... IT's Confusing, But This Is Kind Of Like A Birthday Present To Me! Well, Enough About Me, Then. Enjoy! XD**

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**Disclaimer~ Not Mine… Well Actually The… No, It's Not Mine. T-T**

**Warning~ Mindless Worrying For Tony, Tony Taking Out His Arc(Not For Long Though), & An Almost Naked Tony. The Warning On That Last One Is More For The Possible Nose Bleeds From Imagining Tony In Nothing But His Boxers. X3**

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_**Ch.10**_

_**Unexpected Morning Visitors**_

_**~3,156~**_

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_He watched with lidded eyes as the Nuke found his target, the fiery blast bringing him out of his daze. His eyes instantly snapped open and he began to yank on his suit with his telekinesis, trying to drag himself back though the portal. He could tell that he didn't have enough energy to pull himself back, so in a risky move, Tony absorbed the energy from his Arc Reactor and channeled it to his telekinesis, boosting it just enough that he was able to pull himself though the portal just as it closed. In his exhaustion and relief, Tony passed out, the last thing he saw was the portal zap closed completely before his eyes closed. His last thoughts before the darkness took him was that he hoped someone caught him. _

The next thing Tony heard was Hulk's roar. It had woken him up from a very uncomfortable nap. Despite what some people think, the suit isn't that comfortable, especially to sleep in: it kept your head above your body, it kept your joints locked, and it was solid steal, it would be more comfortable to sleep on hot coals... okay, that was an exaggeration, but give him a break, Tony had a splitting headache, his entire body was sore, his chest hurt, and he was kinda worried one of the guys had just kissed him trying to resuscitate him. Luckily none of them had, Hulk had just roared and woken him up. He'd have to take the man (Bruce too) out for a treat. Happy had tried to get him to try something called Shawarma a few weeks ago, maybe he'd go for that?

Thor, unfortunately, was a party-pooper and informed them they weren't done yet. Tony had just been thrown out of his tower (it was like what? Almost 100 stories?), fought an army of aliens (yeah, it wasn't a contest, but he'd definitely killed more than the rest of them), he'd flown a Nuclear Missile into space, AND he had fallen probably 200-300 stories to the ground from said space... Or at least that's what he thought, but now that he was thinking more clearly, that thought didn't make much sense to him: he wouldn't have survived that fall, even with the suit. He'd have to get JARVIS to find some footage of what happened. Anyway, Tony had just done all that shit and Thor, of all people, was trying to get them to do even _more_? What else could they possibly have to... oh yeah. Tony would have face palmed if he hadn't been in the suit. Reindeer Games was still out there. Fuck. Well, they'd better get to have Shawarma after words.

Tony groaned as Rogers helped him to his feet, the suit wasn't working so the weight was all on his beaten up body. But Tony quickly restarted the suit and they all went up to the tower. Loki was just getting up when they got there. Everyone looked confused as Loki asked Tony for a drink, but Tony dismissed them and ignored the downed Demi-God. Loki was easily captured. Thor looked sour as several SHIELD agents came to pick up his brother.

"Come along brother." Thor said, grabbing Loki's bicep.

"I'm _not_ your _brother_!" Loki hissed.

Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Captain Rogers left with Thor, the SHIELD agents, and the now chained up Loki, leaving Tony and, the now de-Hulked, Dr. Bruce Banner standing in Tony's destroyed living room. Tony took off his suit and had JARVIS get Banner some clothes to wear. The Doctor was clutching at his ruined pants so they wouldn't fall off.

"Um... Thanks for the clothes Mr. Stark." Bruce said as he entered the kitchen, picking at one of the button on the shirt he was wearing. _Is that real gold?_ He thought to himself.

He had left the room to change his clothes, Tony wasn't just going to leave his fellow scientist in those ripped up, destroyed pants from the fight. While the Doctor was in Stark Tower, he was going to be dressed in a full, very _expensive_ and very _stylish_, outfit, whether the man wanted to or not.

"No problem Bruce, and it's Tony." Tony said, pouring himself a glass of something dark green and disgusting looking. "Remind me to make you some stretchy pants."

"That wont be necessary _Tony_." Bruce said, watching in mild amusement and disgust as Tony drank his green sludge. "Um... if you don't mind me asking, what is that?"

"First, yes, it is necessary, second, no I don't mind; you can ask anything you want. No stupid questions." Tony wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "And third, It's Chlorophyll."

"Chlorophyll." Bruce repeated, making sure he was hearing Tony right. Tony nodded in the affirmative. "Why are you drinking Chlorophyll?"

"It helps with the Arc Reactor." Tony said, tapping the metal circle in his chest.

Though Tony was telling the truth about the drink helping with his Reactor, he wasn't telling the whole truth. Chlorophyll not only helped with the Arc Reactor, it also helped soothe the headaches that came with overusing his powers. Though overuse didn't happen very much: a few times when he was a kid; being over eager and all, once or twice when he was training with Scott, Jean, or Ororo in the Danger Room, but lately only when fighting off an alien army sent to take over Earth by a psychotic Demigod. So yeah, it didn't happen too often.

"Oh, is there anything I can do to help?" Bruce asked, looking worriedly all of a sudden.

Tony thought for a second, truly wondering if the Doctor could help with anything.

"JARVIS, run scans on the Arc, see what's wrong." Tony said, taking another drink of Chlorophyll, he really had come to genuinely like the stuff.

"_It seems to be depleted Sir. Your little stunt with the portal also caused it to go offline for approximately 21 seconds, causing some damage._" JARVIS informed him, sounding very disapproving of Tony's actions.

Bruce jumped a little at the sudden voice. Bruce had heard Tony talk of JARVIS before, but he had always thought that JARVIS was someone who worked for Tony, but now it seemed that he was Tony's house: apparently an AI, and an extremely smart one too. Which is to be expected when dealing with Tony Stark, so he shouldn't be too surprised.

"_I would suggest you switch out the whole reactor unit Sir, as the core cable seems to have sustained some damage, and then you should rest until the date for Loki's transfer._" JARVIS said, interrupting Bruce's thoughts.

"When is that by the way?" Tony asked, he didn't know, was it even set yet? It had only been an hour or so since the battle ended, but he wouldn't put it past Fury.

"_It has not been decided yet._" JARVIS said. "_Though rest is required unless you wish for your condition to worsen._"

"What condition?" Bruce asked, for all he knew Tony only had the Arc Reactor, no other health problems.

"Oh, it's nothing, much." Tony waved off.

"_Sir, cuts in the veins around your heart is not 'nothing,' if you were to pull your chest the wrong way, tugging on a larger cut, you could rip the vein in half, making you bleed internally._" JARVIS said, sounding exasperated, like he had explained this a dozen times already.

"Please JARVIS, don't be so dramatic." After a few seconds of disapproving silence from JARVIS, Tony caved like a small child being glared at, and if Bruce didn't know any better, he would have swore that JARVIS gave a sigh of relief. "Fine, I'll rest."

"_You need to change out the current Reactor first._" JARVIS ordered.

"Geez, I thought I was in charge." Tony grumbled good-naturedly, then looked at Bruce's hands. "Bruce, hold up your hands for me."

Bruce looked confused for a second but decided it better not to ask, Tony was an eccentric, genius billionaire after all, so he slowly raised his hand to show Tony.

"JARVIS what do you think?" Tony asked, studying Bruce's hands. "Small enough?"

"_They are a bit bigger than Ms. Potts, though they are small enough._" JARVIS replied.

"Great!" Tony said with a smile on his face. "You asked if there was anything you could do? Well, you can help me change out this Reactor for a new one. Follow me down to my lab."

Bruce followed Tony to the elevator and down a few levels: remarkably only one floor of the tower had been damaged. Seeing as it was holding the machine that was creating the portal, the Chitauri stayed away from it, so the only damage done to the Tower was in the living room and was caused by Tony, Loki and Hulk. Which was totally okay, because it had all been Tony and Hulk beating up on Loki... except the window, that had been Loki throwing Tony out of it, but that was nothing but one pane of glass.

They entered the lab and Bruce looked around, amazed at all the advanced technology surrounding him. Though he was having a mini 'geek-out,' as Tony would probably call it, he went into doctor mode as soon as Tony pulled off his shirt, took out an Arc Reactor and started hooking himself up to a heart monitor.

"What exactly do you need me to do?" Bruce asked, coming to stand next to Tony, who was now sitting on what looked like a modified barbers chair.

"Once I take out this Arc-here hold this-you'll hook that up inside my chest." Tony instructed, handing Bruce the spare Arc Reactor, he cradled it in his hands like it was the secret to life itself. "You'll have to reach your hand inside with the cable and hook it up to the magnet in the back: it should just click in."

Tony said, laying back in the chair and grabbing the Arc in his chest, twisting until there was a loud _click_, and he slowly pulled the Arc out. Then with a quick jerk Tony ripped the cord still attacked to him out of his chest cavity with a small grunt, the heart monitor picking up speed a bit. Bruce went to put the Arc in right away, but Tony waved him off.

"Hold on a sec." Tony said, grabbing a cloth on the counter. "I gotta clean it out first, there's a pus like build up from the Reactor, I've heard it's really gross."

It took Tony about 30 seconds to clean out the hole in his chest with a suction hose, and then he let Bruce put the new Arc in. JARVS had been right, his were slightly bigger but still small enough and luckily for him, Bruce also had very steady hands, he guessed it came with the whole 'Doctor' thing. There was another _click_ that indicated the cable was attached to the magnet and Tony took the Arc from Bruce's hands, easily sliding it into place and twisting it into its resting place. Tony sighed as he felt the Arc hum in his chest before sitting up and taking the heart monitor cords off then put his shirt back on.

"Well, that's all." Tony said, turning to Bruce in a full on pout. "I have to go nap now, according to my babysitter. If I don't he's bound to lock me out of my bar."

"_I only do what is good for your health Sir._" JARVIS chimed in.

"No, you just want to torture me." Tony said in suffering tone. "Or take over my brain."

Bruce smiled at the banter between the two. It was nice to see, considering all the damage and anger he'd seen since he was 'recruited' from Calcutta.

"_Sir you need your rest, I promise you, I will not try and take over your mind while you are asleep._" JARVIS said dryly. "_Heaven forbid anyone besides you from trying to deal with that mess._"

Tony paused for a second before laughing. "I'll give you that one." Tony yawned and turned back to Bruce. "I am pretty tired, you probably are too. You can use any of the guest rooms, JARVIS'll show you where they are. You can look around my lab, just don't break or move anything. Night!"

And with that, Tony left the lab, leaving Bruce just standing there, and made his way up the stairs to his room. As soon as he entered his room he shut and locked the door behind him and took a deep fortifying breath. His headache was lessened a bit by the Chlorophyll, but with changing his Reactor, it came back with a vengeance. Not to mention all the cuts and bruises he had from the fight, it was an understatement to say Tony was sore. Tony groaned as he peeled his clothes off, throwing them to the side to be picked up later. He undressed until he was in just his boxers and collapsed onto his bed, already falling asleep.

"JARV?" Tony mumbled.

"_Yes Sir?_"

"Make sure Bruce sleeps in a comfy room."

"_Of course Sir._"

"And do _not_ wake me up until after 10am. And contact Fury in the morning about when Loki's scheduled to go back to Asgard with Thor."

"_Yes Sir._"

"And remind me to call Charles some time tomorrow... and Pepper."

"_Of course Sir. You should sleep now._"

"Right, night JARV."

"_Goodnight Sir._"

Tony fell into a sore and exhaustion fueled sleep: his electrokinesis not healing him due to over use. He knew he was going to be sore in the morning, but didn't care, he'd cut the pain off once he woke up.

Tony ended up sleeping for over 12 hours, seeing as it was only 8:30pm when he'd gone to bed and 10:01am when he was woken up by JARVIS, the smart ass. But Tony was glad he'd woken him up, if he'd slept too long, he'd have started dreaming, which would have turned into nightmares. He was already surprised he hadn't had any with how much he'd slept already.

Slowly sitting up, Tony groaned at the pain he felt. Not being a big fan of pain, Tony had realized, with a little fine tuning, that he could simply use his electrokinesis to block off the pain receptor so he didn't feel anything. Sure it had it's drawbacks; like it took considerable concentration to keep up, only worked on current pain, and still allowed him to feel new pain, but if Tony didn't feel the immense amount of pain he was supposed to feel, then it was fine with him. Tony quickly absorbed enough energy to block out the pain, and also began to slowly heal himself: he would be completely fine within a day or so.

Not really listening to what JARVIS was saying, Tony got up and walked to the kitchen, looking for his life water, also known as coffee. He was handed a cup of coffee, not caring who it was who gave it to him, he was still too sore to care, only that it was now in his hands.

Taking a large gulp of the hot liquid Tony sighed in delight: just the way he liked it. He sat down at the table, finally taking a second to look around the room. Tony froze as the entire Avengers team was staring at him. Steve leaning against the counter watching him with an amused smirk, though Tony noticed that Steve was blushing a bit. Clint was sitting on the counter next to the sink, kicking his legs back and forth like a toddler, but he too had an amused smirk on his face like Steve, but minus the blush. Thor was eating Pop Tarts and Tony wondered where he got Pop Tarts in the first place. Natasha was pouring another cup of coffee for herself, she had to have been the one to give him his; she was the only one who knew how he liked his coffee, and Bruce was sitting at the table nursing a cup of what looked like tea.

"Um... Hi?" Tony greeted, wondering how everyone got into his kitchen. "Uh, JARVIS?"

"_Dr. Banner let them in last night Sir._" JARVIS said.

Tony was slightly amused as Steve jumped a little at JAVRIS's sudden, Thor stopped shoveling Pop Tarts into his mouth to look at the ceiling curiously, and Clint froze and looked to Natasha, but seeing that she didn't react he went to kicking his legs.

"I hope you don't mine Tony." Bruce said shifting nervously in his spot next to Tony. "They came by after you went to bed."

"And why did they come by?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because the Helicarrier is a wreck still and Fury ordered us to stay here," Natasha said, sitting down across from Tony and Bruce. "and because this is a building owned by one of the Avengers', and is literally the _least_ damaged building in all of Manhattan right now, it's the safest place for us to recuperate and reside until Loki is sent home."

"So you all stayed here last night?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, sorry we didn't ask permission first." Clint said, not actually sounding sorry. "But you were asleep and um..."

"JARVIS wouldn't let us disturb you." Natasha finished, taking a sip of her coffee.

Tony glared at his ceiling, but resigned to having the near strangers in his home. Tony sighed into his coffee, he was going to need another cup.

"Um... Stark?" Rogers asked, the blush on his face brightening a bit and he looked away, not looking Tony in the eye.

"Yeah Rogers?" Tony asked, sounding bored.

"Could you... put some clothes on?"

Now it made sense to Tony why Steve was blushing and avoiding eye contact. Tony looked down at himself and realized that he was only wearing boxers. He shrugged and finished off his coffee, he stood up to get himself another.

"Naw, I think I'll stay like this." Tony said, a small smirk on his lips: it was so much fun to make the Captain uncomfortable. "It's too hot and this _is_ my home. I'll walk around naked if I want to."

"You do that and I'll tell Pepper." Natasha threatened.

"You wouldn't." Tony turned on his feet to glare at the assassin who just raised her eyebrow as if to say 'try me,' and Tony knew better and raised one hand in surrender. "Fine, I wont walk around Naked."

"Have you called her?" Natasha asked.

"Once. Yesterday." Tony said, not giving anymore information. He grabbed the coffee pot and began to refill his cup. "JARVIS, where is Pepper?"

"_She is currently on a flight back to New York, at the moment she is over Pennsylvania._" JARVIS replied. "_Her flight is scheduled to land at 12:45 this afternoon._"

"When's she due to arrive at the Tower?"

"_With traffic the way it is it and the roads full of debris and ruble, it should take her roughly 4 hours to get here from the airport._" JARVIS reported as Tony walked back to the table.

"4 hours!" Tony said surprised as he sat down. "Send the helicopter to pick her and Happy up. Happy is with her right?"

"_He is. Also Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes called earlier looking for you._" JARVIS said. "_He seemed distressed Sir._"

"Ah shit." Tony cursed, running a hand though his hair. "What'd you tell him?"

"_I informed him that you were resting and that your health was relatively fine._" JARVIS said. "_He said he'd be coming over but didn't give a specific time._"

"Relatively?" Steve asked eyes wide.

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**E/N~ So What'd You Think? Did You Like? Do You Hate It? If It's The Latter, Please Don't Say Anything! T-T But I Do Appreciate Constructive Criticism, So Please Tell Me What You Think. Or Where I Can Improve! **

**& I Put Up Another Poll. Seeing As On My Last Poll People Were Stuck Between The Two Options Of Yes, So I Decided To Post A Poll On Oh How He'll Be Introduced... So Yes Magneto Will Be In This Story! X3**

**No Sneak Peek This Time, Because I Kinda Just Gave You One With Telling You That Magneto's Going To Be In It At Some Point. ;P **

**Please Review! **


	11. Coming Together In The End

**A/N~ So Here's Another Chapter! This One Has Rhodey In It! I Hope You Like It!**

**On An Unrelated Note, I Went Into My Jury Summons Today. I Didn't Get Chosen, But It Was Interesting. & I Got The Tattoos On My Left Shoulder Touched Up. I Went In To Get The Bottom One Done, But He Was So Cool & Re-Did My Whole Arm. But Now I'm Stuck In The Pain Faze While It Heals Up.**

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**Disclaimer~ You Know What? Every Time I Do This IT Just MAkes Me Realize How Sad It Is That I Don't Actually Own Anything. T-T **

**Warning~ Description Of Hurt Tony(That Always Makes Me Sad), Also I Should Probably Mention This Seeing As I've Forgotten To Mention It In All The Other Chapters, But This Is NOT Beta'd. That's About It. Enjoy! XD**

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**_Ch.11_**

**_Coming Together In The End._**

**_~3,107~_**

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"_He is. Also Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes called earlier looking for you." JARVIS said. "He seemed distressed Sir." _

"_Ah shit." Tony cursed, running a hand though his hair. "What did you tell him?" _

"_I informed him that you were resting and that your health was relatively fine." JARVIS said. "He said he'd be coming over but didn't give a specific time."_

"_Relatively?" Steve asked eyes wide._

Of course Steve would pick up on that one word. Of _fucking_ course.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Steve asked, sounding concerned.

"Just a couple scratches and bruises, nothing too bad." Tony said, waving him off as he picked his coffee and took a sip.

"JARVIS?" Natasha asked. "How bad is it?"

"_It could be worse Miss Romanoff, though Sir still needs more rest to allow the veins around his heart to heal properly._" JARVIS answered before Tony could order him to not say anything. "_As well as to heal from his concussion and internal bruising. His left knee was also dislocated during his fall but snapped back into place on its own. You really should ice that Sir._"

"JARVIS!" Tony whined, crossing his arms on the table and resting his head on them. "You traitor!"

"Shit Stark, you're that injured?" Clint cursed, looking over the genius with his hawk-like eyes.

The entire team looked the man leaning over the table over, noticing the injuries they had _somehow_ overlooked: the painful swelling around his left knee, the large, purple bruise peeking out over both of his shoulders and stretching around his right hip and lower back, the cut above his left eye, just underneath his hair line. It seemed the billionaire was the most injured of them all. The man looked like Hell physically, but he acted as if nothing was wrong.

"Jesus Stark, internal bruising? Dislocated knee? Concussion?" Steve listed worriedly and confused. "And what's this about your heart?"

Tony raised his eyebrow at the worry the Captain was showing.

"Well, this is surprising." Tony deadpanned. "You worried 'bout me Cap?"

"Of course I'm worried about you." Steve said, slightly taken aback by Tony's expressionlessness. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh, I don't know." Tony said, playing oblivious. "Maybe it has something to do with_ 'Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?'_ Just wondering where this sudden worry is coming from." Tony deepened his voice when quoting the words in a horrible impersonation of the Captain.

Steve blushed again, obviously guilty about what he had said.

"I should apologize about what I said to you. You are obviously more than just a man in an armor suit." Steve said, looking down at the floor, then looking up and looking Tony straight in the eye. "Tony, I'm sor-"

"Save it Rogers." Tony said quickly. "I don't want your misplaced apologies."

They all stayed quiet, except for Thor who was still eating Pop Tarts but was watching the scene, as Tony and Steve stared at each other, Tony more glaring and Steve staring guiltily but then angrily.

"I'm just trying to apologize Stark, why can't you just accept it?" Steve asked angrily.

"Because you don't mean it." Tony said simply and calmly. "You only want to apologize because you thought I was going to die when I flew into that portal. An apology to make you less guilty isn't an apology worth giving."

"Sure I feel guilty. What I said was wrong, I shouldn't have said it. How would you know why I'm apologizing?" Steve said, feeling the anger build up, but fall at the serious yet sad look on Tony's face.

"Because I've been given too many apologies that mean nothing." Tony said, looking into his coffee. "You don't know me Rogers. You're a stranger you judges me by my past. I don't want a strangers apology. Besides, I can see it in your eyes that you don't actually mean it."

They all went quiet, including Thor, at the sadness in Tony's tone. This was a side of Tony only a few people had seen before. Tony could feel their pity and their eyes on him, and he started to get angry. Oh how he just wanted to take Rogers and dangle him out the window using his telekinesis, but he wasn't going to. Everyone in the room were _unknowns_.

"Stark-" Natasha started, having known the man for the longest, but was interrupted.

"_Sir, Colonel Rhodes is currently riding up in the elevator._" JARVIS said, causing Tony to stand up. "_He is fairly agitated Sir._"

"Oh Shit, oh shit, oh shit!" Tony said quickly, starting to pace.

And just like that the sad, pitiful Tony Stark was gone, replaced by a Tony that was slightly freaking out at the news he was just given.

The group watched Tony have a mini freakout, pacing around his kitchen in nothing but his boxers, coffee forgotten on the table. The man seriously looked distressed. None of them, sans Natasha, knew who this Colonel Rhodes was, or how he could make the seemingly un-fazeable man so uneasy.

"Oh this will be good." Natasha said, smirking evilly.

"Oh shut it Natashalie." Tony snapped at the redhead, the nickname slipping out.

"You know this Colonel Rhodes 'Tasha?" Clint asked confused.

"Oh, I know him." She just smirked at Tony.

Just then the elevator dinged and they all shut up as they heard a voice call out.

"Tony! Tony where are you?" The voice called out, but when Tony didn't answer he addressed JARVIS. "JARVIS where is he?"

"JARVIS, don't you da-" Tony whispered but it was too late.

"_He is in the kitchen Colonel._" JARVIS answered.

They listened as heavy footsteps headed towards the kitchen and watched as Tony looked for an escape route. Finding no way to get away from his friend, Tony ran and hid behind Thor, who was large enough to cover his entire body. Just as he got behind Thor, who was honestly amused by the whole situation, the door to the kitchen opened and everyone watched as a tall dark skinned man with a military haircut walked in.

"Where is he?" The man demanded, not caring who the strangers in his friend's kitchen were.

The entire team pointed to Thor, who moved out of the way, despite the cry of outrage that came from Tony. The man immediately advanced on the frightened genius, who backed up against the counter.

"Um... Hey Platypus. Long time no see." Tony said, trying to lighten the mood.

As soon as Tony was within arms reach, Rhodey pulled Tony into a tight hug, startling the man. Tony froze as he was encased in his friend's arms, unsure what to do, he didn't really like hugs, but knew his friend needed the closure that he was indeed alive and well. Slowly, Tony raised his arms around his friends and hugged back.

"I'm okay Rhodey." Tony said quietly, patting his friend on the back.

Suddenly Rhodey pushed Tony away, hands on his shoulders and stared Tony in the eye.

"You moron!" Rhodey yelled angrily shaking him. "What the hell were you thinking! A Nuke!? Seriously?"

"What?" Tony asked confused: how would he know it was a nuke he flew into the portal? How would he even know that it was Tony who flew something into the portal?

"You have got to be kidding me Tony!" Rhodey yelled, obviously reading Tony's mind. "It was on the News! Everyone saw you fly that Nuke into the portal!"

Tony's eyes widened at the revelation. Now he new why Rhodey was freaking out on him and why Pepper hadn't answered her phone: she had been watching him fly that Nuke into the portal. Tony put his hand over Rhodey's and smiled at him.

"I'm okay Rhodey. A bit battered and bruised, but nothing a days rest and a good nights sleep wont cure." Tony reassured him.

"Yeah, I can see." Rhodey said unconvinced as he looked over his friends. "What looks like a broken knee and probably a concussion from whatever gave you that cut on your eye. Not to mention this bruise."

Rhodey poked Tony's shoulder where the bruise was showing. He turned Tony around to survey him.

"Damn Tony, you look worse than the Expo." Rhodey laughed a bit.

"Yeah, well I feel worse than then too." Tony laughed back, looking at his friend over his shoulder.

"Well, this was definitely more of a fight than the Expo." Natasha said from her spot at the kitchen table.

Tony and Rhodey turned to look at her, noticing the entire team of super heros were watching them... Creepy, but okay.

"Um... guys, this is my best friend." Tony said, motioning to Rhodey. "Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes of the US Air Force's Weapons Development Devision. But you can just call him Rhodey... or Platypus."

The team looked over the dark skinned man: he was wearing jeans and a dark dress shirt, sneakers and despite his dressing down, he held an authority about him, one that was only gained in the military.

"It's nice to meet you Colonel Rhodes," Rogers was the first to greet him. "I'm Captain Steve Rogers."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Captain." Rhodey said, shaking the mans hand.

"It is a great pleasure to meet such a good friend of Friends Stark's." Thor greeted with a firm hand shake and a clap on the back that almost knocked Rhodey to the ground. "I am Thor Odinson, Prince and future king of Asgard!"

"A pleasure Thor." Rhodey gave an incredulous look at Tony.

Everyone thought Rhodey was probably thinking that Thor was crazy, heck they all thought Thor was a little cuckoo when they first met him, but when Tony simply shrugged they realized he was shocked at the mans strength.

"He's a Demigod." Tony shrugged with a smile. "Just wait till he gives you a hug."

Rhodey shook his hand to try and get circulation back to his fingers and shook his head in exasperation.

"I'm Clint Barton." Clint nodded, shaking the mans hand from his spot on the counter.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Barton." Rhodey greeted, too used to Tony's antics to care in the least that the man hadn't stood up to greet him.

Rhodey turned to the table where Bruce and Natasha were sitting. The first thing he noticed was that Bruce was wearing Tony's clothes, the only reason he knew they were Tony's was because he had bought that particular shirt for Tony as a birthday present last year: it was special ordered and he'd picked the design himself, with real gold mixed into the red buttons. Rhodey walked up to the table as Tony sat next to Bruce.

"This is Dr. Bruce Banner," Tony gestured to the man. "Bruce this is Rhodey."

"A pleasure Dr. Banner, I've heard quite a bit about you." Rhodey said recognizing the name.

The entire team instantly became interested by that little statement. When had Tony had time to brag about Bruce to his friend?

"Really?" Bruce said, sounding surprised and looking at Tony expectantly.

"Oh yes, when Tony spent a week or two studying the effects of Gamma Radiation and electron collision, or something like that, he'd never shut up about you." Rhodey said. "He was very impressed, which, trust me, is hard to do."

Tony simply shrugged at the stares he was getting. "I told you I was a huge fan."

"I didn't think you meant that literally." Bruce said with a small smile.

"Oh he's a fan all right, two weeks is by far the longest he's ever taken to study something before. At least before MIT." Rhodey scoffed. "He didn't fangirl you did he? You didn't ask him for his autograph did you?" He asked, turning to Tony.

"Oh course I didn't!" Tony said sounding exasperated. "I settled for being Science bros."

"Science bros?" Bruce asked hesitantly.

"Don't fight it Bruce, just embrace the Science!" Tony said dramatically, a grin playing on his lips.

"I wouldn't go against him if I were you Dr. Banner." Rhodey sighed with a small smile. "He's impossible once he gets an idea in his head."

"Hey!" Tony laughed in fake outrage. "I'm not that bad!"

"You're right," Natasha spoke up from her spot across from Tony and Bruce a small smirk on her lips. "You're much worse."

Everyone laughed, even Tony had a smile on his face, destroying the fake pouting look he was going for. Rhodey noticed the red head, he hadn't introduced himself too yet, but looking at her face he recognized her immediately.

"Ah, Natalie. It's nice to see you again." Rhodey said, looking at Natasha. "How have you been?"

"I've been good. Saving the world from dumb ass aliens and murderous Demigods." Natasha shrugged. "So same old same old."

Rhodey laughed and was about to say something when he was interrupted.

"Natalie?" Clint asked confused. "'Tasha why's he calling you Natalie? And how do you know this guy anyway?"

"Oh right. I keep forgetting your real name is Natasha." Rhodey said sounding like he'd just realized he'd made a mistake. "Sorry about that Natasha."

"Oh it's no problem James." Natasha said with something close to a forgiving smile before turning to Clint. "We know each other from a mission I had about two years ago."

"And he's still alive?" Clint asked surprised, then quickly added, "No offense Colonel, but she's not known for her compassion against people who know her cover's a fake."

"It was an undercover mission to watch someone." Natasha said, looking directly at Tony. "If it had been an assassination, Stark wouldn't be here."

Everyone looked at the billionaire who just shrugged.

"The sad thing is," Tony sighed. "I don't doubt it. You you have used poison or-"

"I would have thrown you over the cliff at your Malibu estate." Natasha said, cutting Tony off. "I've had plenty of time to think of ways to kill you."

Tony just nodded this with a contemplative look on his face. "Good choice, not very original, seeing as Pepper's said the same thing and Loki really did throw me out of my building, but good nonetheless." Tony said as if it were normal.

"Stark was your target?" Steve asked, surprised, obviously ignoring that the two were talking about how she would kill the man. "Why would you be sent undercover to watch Stark?"

"... I'm not at liberty to say." Natasha said in a very unusual act of sympathy. "If Stark wishes to tell you then he can tell you. It's not my place to say why."

The team was a bit shocked, but mostly curious as to what it could be that Natasha wouldn't tell because she was respecting _Tony's_ privacy. They all looked at Tony expectantly.

"Thank you Natasha." Tony said sincerely, before glaring at Rhodey. "At least someone knows how to respect my privacy, and I'm still waiting for you to bring back the War Machine armor."

"Yeah, well, that's not gonna happen Tony." Rhodey smirked. "I've become quite attached to the suit."

"Of course you have." Tony rolled his eyes fondly. "Figures."

"Are you going to tell us why Natasha was assigned to watch you?" Clint asked impatiently.

"No." Tony snapped at him. "It's none of your damn business!"

"Tony, down boy." Rhodey said, putting a hand down on Tony's shoulder, a little harder than necessary, causing Tony to hiss in pain. "Sorry."

"It's fine, It should be gone in a day or so." Tony said, rubbing his shoulder, he had gotten distracted. And Rhodey didn't know his own strength.

"As if." Clint scoffed. "That bruise will be there for weeks, maybe even months."

"Nah, Tony's a fast healer." Rhodey said, waving his hand. "Like freakishly fast."

"Hey! I'm not freakish!" Tony pouted.

"No, you just created something to heal you super fast and wont share it with the world." Rhodey complained, it sounded like they had had this conversation before.

"I told you, I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't create anything." Tony shook his head: sure he didn't want Rhodey to find out he was a mutant, but he also didn't want his friend to think that he was hoarding something as valuable as that. Something that could heal broken bones in days would be a miracle drug. "I'm just a really quick healer, always have been."

"Right, keep what ever it is to yourself." Rhodey said, ending the topic. "I will find out how you do it, eventually."

"Fine, well I'm going to go take a shower." Tony said standing up. "Good luck with your search for my nonexistent heal-all potion Professor Snape."

Tony went to leave, but Rhodey grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side, whispering into his ear.

"Tony, how much do you trust these guys?" Rhodey asked, concerned that his friend was leaving a group of strangers in his kitchen without supervision.

"Not much," Tony whispered back, glancing at the Avenger for a second, they were all questioning Natasha, except Thor who had gone back to eating Pop Tarts after introducing himself. "I trust Bruce and I guess I trust Natasha not to break anything since she knows her way around, but mainly Bruce."

"Tony we need to talk in private." Rhodey said seriously.

"I know, Pepper and Happy are on their way here, they should be here in a few hours, we'll talk then."

Tony pulled away from his friend to address the team.

"Okay you lot, I'm taking a shower and then I'm taking a nap until Pepper arrives. Natashalie if you would keep her calm until I come up, that would be greatly appreciated... And it could earn you a new pair of shoes."

"Can I special order some with hollowed out heals?" Natasha asked as if she were asking about the color: like it was completely normal.

"If you succeed, then you can special order the shit out of them." Tony said. "I'd rather fight off Loki again than face and angry and distraught Pepper."

"Agreed." Natasha said before returning to ignoring the questions thrown at her by the teammates.

Tony turned back to Rhodey and smiled at the disbelieving shake of his head. They left the kitchen and Rhodey headed for the living room... the one that hadn't been destroyed by an evil Demigod and Hulk. Tony went back to his room to take a shower and take a a small nap. Despite having slept for over 12 hours, he was still pretty tired, he remembered someone telling him something about over sleeping making you feel tired, but he couldn't remember the specifics. But he had a feeling that it was also partly due to having to deal with the Avengers invading his tower and then having to deal with Rhodey too.

And the thought of dealing with Pepper in a few hours sent shivers down his spine. It definitely wasn't something he was looking forward to. He just hoped that Natasha _really_ wanted those shoes.

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**E/N~ So? What'd You Think? Please Tell Me In A Review! **

**Okay, I've Been Having Some Trouble With My Polls, But I Think I've Finally Got Them Down. I Was Giving You Guys Too Wide A Range & Not Specific Enough Directions. So I'm Going To Go For Simple Yes/No Questions For Now. So Please Vote On That Poll. Please? *Puppy Eyes* **


	12. Brinner: Breakfast For Dinner

**A/N~ Okay, So Here's The Next Chapter! This One's Mainly A Filler Chapter… I Just Didn't Know How To Set It Up Any Other Way To Get To The Ending I Wanted That Set It Up For The Next Chapter. So Sorry, But There's Also Pepper In This. So It's Not Completely Filler, Just Mostly The Middle... I Guess You Could Call It Character Development... So Yeah, Filler. XD **

**Also, Just An Early Warning, Not Next Week, But The Week After That(The First Week Of May) I'm Probably Going To Be Taking That Week Off For Finals. So Sorry If I Do End Up Not Posting That Week & Possibly The Following Week After That Too. The First 2 Weeks Of May Are Going To Be VERY Hectic For Me. Any Lets Get On With The Chapter, How's That Sound? Good? Okay Then… I'll Shut Up Now & Give The Warning/Disclaimer. **

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**Disclaimer~ Nope, Not Mine… Etc. Etc.**

**Warning~ Chef Tony Is Back(I Imagined Him With A Big Grin & Batter All Over His Face As He Cooked), So Nose Bleeds Are Possible If You Have A Good Enough Imagination, & Tony Being A BAMF(In My Opinion) In Relation To Natasha… You See. & That's About It. ENJOY! XD**

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**_Ch.12_**

**_Brinner: Breakfast For Dinner_**

**_~3,578~_**

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_Tony went back to his room to take a shower and take a a small nap. Despite having slept for over 12 hours, he was still pretty tired, he remembered someone telling him something about over sleeping making you feel tired, but he couldn't remember specifics. But he had a feeling that it was also partly due to having to deal with the Avengers invading his tower and then having to deal with Rhodey too. _

_And the thought of dealing with Pepper in a few hours sent shivers down his spine. It definitely wasn't something he was looking forward to. He just hoped that Natasha really wanted those shoes. _

Tony was woken up by a soft knock on his door. It was not what he had suspected, which was loud pounding. Natasha must have succeeded in keeping Pepper calm. Either that, or it wasn't Pepper knocking on his door.

"Come in." Tony groaned, rolling over onto his stomach and covering his head with a pillow, the blanket pulled up to his neck, essentially covering him completely.

"Tony you decent?" A male voice questioned, it was one Tony easily recognized, and that meant that Natasha probably failed to keep Pepper calm.

"Am I ever decent?" Tony groaned.

"Hardly." Happy answered with a small laugh as he walked into the room.

"How mad is Pepper?" Tony asked, not bothering to remove the pillow from his face, luckily Happy was a master as understanding muffled pillow talk.

"Not too mad, Natasha explained what happened." Happy replied and sat one the bed. "She's mostly worried about you."

"I know, not calling her and all to let her know I was safe." Tony mumbled, moving to sit up.

"Jesus, Boss!" Happy exclaimed, seeing the large bruise on Tony's back as it became visible as the blanket fell down his back. "You should put some ice on that."

"It'll be gone in a day or so... God I sound like a broken record." Tony said rubbing a hand over his face. "What time is it?"

"_It is 4:36pm Sir._" JARVIS answered.

"4:30! When did Pepper and Happy arrive?" Tony asked, astonished he'd slept for another 6 hours.

"_They arrived at approximately 2:30pm Sir._" JARIVS replied.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Tony asked, slightly angry.

"We asked him not to." Happy interjected.

"What?" Tony's angry quelled, leaving him a bit confused.

"Well, after Natasha and everyone explained what happened, JARVIS told us you were sleeping." Happy explained. "We didn't want to wake you up. Especially with how you normally sleep: we figured you should get some rest before you go and deprive yourself of sleep again."

Tony huffed, but relented, understanding what he meant. Tony stood up and stretched, grunting as his back and shoulders popped.

"So, where is everyone?" Tony asked, walking to his closet to grab a shirt and a pair of jeans.

"They were all in the living room when I left." Happy answered. "That's quite a group you have out there. That Thor guy is freakishly strong."

"You shake his hand?" Tony asked with a laugh.

"It's still sore."

"Yeah, well, he's a God, so it's kind of a given." Tony said, coming out if his closet fully dressed in jeans and his favorite ACDC shirt. "I'm hungry, what do we have in the kitchen?"

"Like I know." Happy shrugged. "I think I saw some eggs in the fridge, but I was just grabbing the milk for Pepper's tea. Didn't really look that hard."

"Sweet, breakfast for a late lunch." Tony smiled. "Lets go."

Tony followed Happy out of the room and down the hall to the living room where everyone was. When they entered, Tony saw that everyone was sitting either on the floor (Clint and Thor), on the couches (Pepper, Bruce and Steve), or standing(Natasha and Rhodey). They were all talking, but once he and Happy entered, they stopped and looked at them.

He noticed that Pepper was teary-eyed and figured that they were telling her specifics about the battle. She stood up as their eyes caught each other and ran around the couch she had been sitting on and wrapped her arms around her boss/boyfriend in a tight hug, burying her face into the crook of his neck. Tony returned the hug: he wasn't much of a hug type of person, and she knew that, but it was the least he could do to calm her down. He had hugged Rhodey earlier that day as well, awkward as it was: they both deserved it.

"You moron." Pepper's muffled voice said as she tightened her grip on him. "Don't ever do that again."

"Pep..." Tony started, pressing his cheek against her head. "I can't promise, but I'll try not to."

Pepper simply nodded against him, accepting that as a reasonable answer for now. She pulled away to give him a once over and tisked at the untreated cut on his forehead, though she knew that with his abnormally fast healing it would be fine. She gave him a kiss, reassuring herself that he was indeed there, alive and well.

"I'm so sorry." She whispered as she pulled away. "I'm sorry Tony."

"It's fine Pepper." Tony said, knowing she was talking about not picking up her phone. "I'm alive anyway, it doesn't matter anymore."

"But-" She started, but Tony cut her off with another kiss.

"It doesn't matter anymore Pepper." Tony said with a smile as he pulled away. "Besides I'm hungry, and that's more important than fussing about the past."

Pepper chuckled and turned in Tony's arms. Everyone had turned away to give them a bit of privacy. At least they weren't staring like when he and Rhodey hugged.

"Who's hungry?" Tony asked the room as he and Pepper walked closer to the group. "Depending on what we have, I'm making breakfast."

"But it's almost 5?" Steve said confused.

"So?" Tony raised one eyebrow, no one questioned him as he let go of Pepper and went into the kitchen. He came back out a minute later, holding two cartons of eggs and a _lot_ of bacon. "Geez Happy, your eyesight must be really bad: the entire fridge is full."

"I wasn't looking for it!" Happy defended himself poorly.

"Whatever, excuses excuses." Tony smiled to let the man know he was just joking. "So who's up for Brunch? Or Brinner, seeing as it's closer to dinner time."

"Brunch? Brinner? What are these?" Thor asked confused. "Some sort of Midgardian food?"

"No, Brunch is breakfast for lunch." Tony said seriously. "And Brinner is breakfast for dinner."

"I'll have some." Clint said, Natasha nodding from her spot next to him.

"I shall partake in this breakfast for dinner." Thor agreed.

"I'll eat." Steve said with a shrug.

Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy all nodded as they took seats on the couches or chairs, knowing that Tony wouldn't want any help in the kitchen.

"I'm good." Bruce said, holding up a bowl of some unknown substance that didn't even look _edible_.

"Yeah... I'm not sure what that is or how it got into the building, but I'm making you some real food." Tony said with a disgusted look on his face.

"It looks better than that Chlorophyll you were drinking last night." Bruce countered and Tony had to give him that one, Chlorophyll did look just that side of nasty.

"Chlorophyll?" Pepper and Rhodey said together, sounding very worried

"Calm it you two, it's not what you think." Tony said instantly, knowing what they were thinking. "I actually like that stuff and it helps with headaches."

Pepper and Rhodey calmed minutely, still watching Tony with concern in their eyes. Tony just rolled his eyes and walked back into the kitchen, but not before giving Natasha meaningful glance, subtly holding up two fingers and mouthing the words_ two pair stilettos, custom_. Natasha sighed, but damn it all if the woman in her didn't want those shoes extremely bad.

"He's fine." Natasha said, in a surprisingly comforting tone, and Pepper and Rhodey both relaxed significantly at the reassurance.

"Okay, one of you is going to tell us what the hell happened to Stark." Clint said, getting annoyed.

When Pepper and Happy had arrived, Clint was surprised that Natasha had swooped in and calmed down the other redheaded woman and brown haired man, knowing exactly what needed to be said to calm them. Both Pepper and Happy knew who Natasha was, that she worked for SHIELD, _and_ was a killer, and apparently didn't mind. What surprised him the most though, was when Pepper had asked where Phil was. That had hurt, hearing Natasha say that he had died in the battle, and seeing the tears run down Peppers face made it clear that they had been friends. Even Happy seemed terribly sad at the news. _How close had Phil been to them? I'd never heard anything about it._ Clint thought.

They had explained that they had both known Natasha and Phil, were close friends. Pepper explained that she had even known about the Avengers before they had even been gathered: Tony was terrible at keeping secrets like that. That Natasha and her were friends and Natasha came over between missions and they hung out: that had shocked Clint, he thought he knew everything about Natasha, now he had to wonder what else he didn't know. Happy had left to get Tony, and Pepper had asked how Phil had died, and Clint had to tune that out so he himself wouldn't cry in grief. Then Tony walked in and thank Odin, because he couldn't have taken much more without escaping into the air ducts for a good hard cry.

Though, even with all the hours of explanation about them knowing each other, they had strategically avoided why Natasha had been placed undercover to watch Stark in the first place, and it was starting to piss him off: Natasha usually didn't mind telling him about past missions.

"What did Tony say?" Pepper asked Natasha.

"Said it's 'none of your damn business.'" Natasha quoted.

"Then there's your answer Mr. Barton." Pepper said in a business like tone. "It's up to Tony, not us."

"Fine." Clint relented, getting a glare from Natasha.

"Um... changing the topic, but, can Tony cook?" Bruce asked.

Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy looked at Bruce before they all smirked, it was kind of eery how they did it together at the same time, like they'd practiced it for that specific moment.

"You'll just have to find out." Pepper said cryptically, a small smile playing at her lips and making Rhodey and Happy chuckle.

The trio got up and walked towards the kitchen. Pepper stopped and looked back at the group of super heros.

"Come on." She motioned for them to follow her. "Come see for yourself. It's quite a site when he just looses himself. Like moving art."

They all got up and walked to the kitchen entrance. They knew Tony could build pretty much anything with his hands, and mix chemicals into anything from toothpaste to diamond melting acid, but food? They were skeptical about Tony's ability to cook. And to call it moving art? They'd never considered cooking an art, but if Pepper said so, they'd have to check it out. She probably knew the most about the subjects in the room anyway: the subjects being Tony and art.

They all peeked into the kitchen and they froze. The kitchen looked totally different than when they had been in there that morning. There was now a large – rather gigantic – industrial stove with more than half a dozen tops, several waffle makers sitting on the counter, along with a few large bowls, and the sheer amount of food on the counters was enough to feed an army.

Though, the sight that met them was astonishing, it was the smell that got their mouths watering. Tony is standing in front of the giant industrial stove. There are half a dozen pans, all cooking something different, while Tony swiftly mixes a large bowl filled with a beige colored cream in smooth movements, like he was conducting an orchestra, and adding a light brown dust to it. He seemed light on his feet, almost as if he was just floating there. Tony looks over his shoulder at the stove and sets down the bowl, making nearly no sound in the process. Grabbing a pair of tongs, Tony picks up a few pieces of bacon out of one pan and plops it down on a paper towel and grabs a knife, cutting the bacon into small pieces before dumping it into the cream filled bowl as well. All with fluid like movements. He seemed almost graceful, like this was his domain.

They watched Tony cook for nearly ten whole minutes, shocked at his ability and level of cooking. They could tell most of the things he was cooking: Bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, ham, omelets even; basic stuff. However, some of the items were lost on them: what seemed to be cinnamon and bacon pancakes? Was he putting blueberries & cinnamon on french toast? And were those raspberry going in the waffle batter? It all looked very delicious and the team could hear their stomaches growling.

It was just about all they could do from running in there and grabbing it before it was even done cooking. Pepper and Rhodey gave each other a glance, smirking together at the groups looks: it was all very comical. Happy, on the other hand, was in the same boat as the Avengers: he was starving and wanted Tony to hurry up and tell them they could eat, he was actually drooling a bit.

Tony turned around to grab something a noticed the group of people watching, he simply raised an eyebrow at them.

"Is it done yet?" Happy asked quickly and full of hope, he felt this was like torture, he hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning.

"No." Tony said, grabbing the salt off the table and putting a bit on the omelet he was making. "It will be done in a bit. Pepper will you set the table?"

"Sure." Pepper answered. "Natasha will you help me?"

Natasha nodded and followed Pepper into the kitchen, all the guys looked jealous, knowing that she was going to steal some of the food as soon as she was close enough. Pepper opened several of the cupboards and started getting down bowls and serving plates, as well as regular plates, and setting them on the counter, as well as several different types of silverware from the drawers. Natasha glanced over at the food and seeing that the sausage was nearest her, she reached to snatch a piece up before Tony could stop her. However, Tony, with lightening fast speed whacked her hand with the spatula he was holding and glared at her.

"Don't even think about it Spider." Tony hissed and went back to his cooking.

The men of the Avengers were shocked to say the least, and Natasha, holding the hand he smacked to her chest, was also stunned. Tony had shown that he feared Natasha more than anyone else: it was probably due to the fact that she was so similar to Pepper and was one of few the women that were able to resist his charm. But Tony had actually _hit_ her. On the _hand_. With a _spatula_! Natasha simply stood there staring, and totally _not_ gaping, at the genius for his actions. She was a spy after all, she would deny it shocked her if someone ask.

Pepper cleared her throat and Natasha simply turned around and took the plates handed to her. Once they got to the table Natasha asked Pepper what was up with that.

"You could say Tony's very, _protective_, of his cooking." Pepper said with a smile.

"Protective? He does realize that we're going to be eating it anyway, right?" Natasha asked, glancing at Tony as the man rummaged through the fridge for some fruit, pulling out a cantaloupe, some apples, and some grapes for, what she guessed was, a fruit salad.

"Yeah, but he doesn't like people to eat his food unless they're sitting down and enjoying it." Pepper said, laying out silverware next to plates. "He's a picky chef that way."

They finished setting the table just as Tony said it was done. He called Pepper and Rhodey over to help set it out on the serving plates Pepper had gotten out and soon they were all sitting at the table ready, and willing, to eat, but not sure where to start.

"Go ahead, dig in." Tony said, taking half a waffle, some toast, and half of a sausage omelet and putting it on his plate, Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy taking food as well.

Slowly the Avengers took food and Clint was the first to start eating.

"Oh my God." Clint exclaimed as he took a bite of his blueberry and cinnamon french toast, closing his eyes in bliss. "This is Heaven!"

The rest of the team looked at Clint as he dug into his food excitedly and copied him.

"This Brinner is the best mean I've tasted on Midgard." Thor bellowed, digging into his pancakes. "What is that magnificent sweet taste? And what are these crunchy bits?"

"Cinnamon and bacon." Tony said, mouth full of waffle. "It's a good combination."

"Tony! Don't talk with your mouth full." Pepper scolded him. "Use your manners."

"What manners?" Tony asked before swallowing the food in his mouth, he looked genuinely confused.

Everyone at the table laughed as Pepper hit Tony in the arm. Tony made a play of being hurt and Pepper immediately apologized, but when she saw that he was joking, she hit him again. They laughed and ate for a good half an hour, simply enjoying themselves and the delicious food, relaxing after the tiring day they had had yesterday. In their relax state, Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy began telling stories, mostly about Tony either being crazy or stupid, or inventing something that was crazy or stupid. Though when Happy told them the story of Natasha changing in the back of his car and him almost crashing trying to watch, the entire group laughed, except for Steve who was blushing. It was in the middle of one of these stories that JARVIS interrupted.

"And so Tony's just sitting there with a stupid grin on his face watching me getting chased around by Dummy with the fire extinguisher, not even _trying_ to stop the blasted machine." Rhodey said exasperated as everyone laughed. "I wasn't even on fire! You really need to fix him Tony."

"But that would be taking away a basic part of who he is." Tony said, a large grin plastered on his face as he remembered the particular incident. "I like him just-"

"_Sir, you have a phone call._" JARVIS interrupted.

"Who's it from?" Tony asked, sipping his coffee, they had all long finished eating, except Thor; he could eat enough food to feed an army.

"_It's from your Malibu home Sir._" JARVIS reported vaguely.

"What?" Pepper said confused before Tony could say anything. "There shouldn't be anyone at the Malibu mansion."

"What then? An intruder calling from the house?" Rhodey asked skeptically.

"That doesn't make sense." Steve commented.

"I'll have SHIELD look into it." Natasha said, reaching for her phone.

"Whoa whoa whoa guys, take it easy." Tony said, raising his hands. "I know who it is, no need to get all antsy."

"What?" Pepper asked confused.

"I have some people staying there."

Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy looked at Tony like he'd lost his mind. They knew Tony didn't have many people he'd call 'close friends,' and even less that he'd let stay in his _home_, and only the three them were allowed when he wasn't there with them. Tony had massive trust issues and they were all curious as to who Tony would possibly let stay at the Malibu home when he was across the country.

"Who is it?" Pepper asked, but sounded more like a demand.

"Just some friends that live here in New York," Tony said, and seeing the unbelieving looks on his friends faces he explained further. "I didn't want them to be in the middle of the invasion so I had them flown out of New York to stay at my home."

They looked shocked. They knew no one besides them that Tony cared so much for.

"_Sir, the phone._" JARVIS reminded him.

"I'll take it in my lab." Tony said getting up and grabbing a fresh cup of coffee and leaving the kitchen.

"Well, that's freakish." Rhodey said once Tony had left the room.

"Why's that?" Clint asked.

"Because there's _no one_ that Tony knows well enough in New York that he'd go though the trouble of flying them all the way to California to keep them safe." Rhodey explained. "Well, no one we know. You know anyone Pepper? Happy?"

"No. I don't know anyone that Tony would even care that much about... except for us." Pepper said confused.

"JARVIS?" Happy asked.

"_Yes, Mr. Hogan?_" JARVIS replied.

"Who's staying at the Malibu mansion?" He questioned.

"_I'm sorry, I have been forbidden to answer that._" JARVIS replied.

"Even for me?" Pepper asked, she could usually be told stuff Tony didn't want others to know.

"_Yes, Miss Potts. Unfortunately I am not allowed to tell anyone who is staying at the Malibu mansion._"

"Can you tell us anything about them?" Rhodey asked.

"_I'm afraid not Colonel Rhodes._" JARVIS answered.

"I wonder who it could be?" Pepper wondered. "They must be very close to Tony for him to act like that and Tony must be either very ashamed or protective for him not to tell us who they are. I can't think of anyone."

"Do you want me to get SHIELD to look into it for you?" Natasha asked, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket.

"No, that's fine." Pepper said, waving her hand and shaking her head. "We'll just wait till he comes back, and hope he'll tell us when he's ready."

* * *

**E/N~ So What'd You Think? Sorry I Kind Of Left You On A Cliff-Ish Type Hanger, But Next Chapter Will Be Better… I Promise. Please Leave Me A Review With Your Thoughts. I Still Have A Poll Up On Whether Or Not Loki & Magneto Should Team Up, It's Just So Close. Please Vote If You Haven't Already. It Really Does Help Me To Know What You Guys Want To See. X3**

* * *

**& Oh, On An Unrelated Topic, I Found This Article On Tumbler About Mark Ruffalo(Bruce Banner/Hulk). The Article Is Called:**

_**Mark Ruffalo Reacts to 'Science Bros,' the Tony Stark–Bruce Banner Romance Meme**_

**It's AMAZING! I'll Give You Guys The Link So You Can Read The Story I Did, But You Can Also Type It In To Google & Tons Of Articles Pop Up. **

www . vulture 2013 / 04 / mark-ruffalo-science-bros-avengers-robert-downey- jr . html

**You Have To Check It Out. It's Simply To Die For. Especially If You Ship Science Bros. XD**


	13. Important Phone Calls

**A/N~ Hey Y'all. New Chapter! I Hope You Like It. Because It's Finally The PHONE CALL! XD **

**Oh & I Want To Inform You All That _THERE WILL NOT BE A CHAPTER NEXT WEEK!_ Again _NO CHAPTER NEXT WEEK!_ I Have To Study For Finals, So I Wont Have Time Write… I'm Worried About My Biology 1 Class. **

**On A Happier Note, Who's Psyched For IRON MAN 3! I Know I Am! I Can't Wait! XD**

**& I Want To Thank SiniseSnakeEyes For Their Idea, That I Kinda Used In This… Not As Much As You Probably Had In Mind, But I Thought It Was A Good Idea So I Through It In There A Bit. So Thanks. X3 **

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**Warning~ Kinda Emotional Tony At The End, & He's A Bit OOC As Well. But It's An Emotional Topic So Yeah. **

**Disclaimer~… Pas Mine. Nope. Je Ne Possède Rien. Thought I'd Try French. Since Tony Can Speak It. I Said 'Not Mine. Nope. I Not To Have Anything.' If It's Wrong, I'm Sorry, I Don't Actually Speak French, I Used A Translator. ;P **

**ANYWAY, I'll Stop Blabbering Now. ENJOY! XD**

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**_Ch.13_**

**_Important Phone Calls_**

**_~3,524~_**

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"_Sir you have a phone call." JARVIS interrupted. _

"_Who's it from?" Tony asked, sipping his coffee, they had finished eating, except Thor; he could eat enough food to feed an army, and were just telling stories. _

"_It's from your Malibu home Sir." JARVIS reported. _

"_I'll take it in my lab." Tony said getting up and grabbing a fresh cup of coffee and leaving the kitchen. _

Tony entered his lab a few floors below the kitchen where he had just been. He plopped down in a wheely-chair and pushed himself towards his desk, setting his cup down as he reached it.

"JARVIS lock down the lab: no one gets in until I'm off the phone with Charles." Tony said, looking up at the ceiling. "Initiate sound proof as well, then put the call though."

"_Yes Sir._" JARVIS replied and a second later there was a _click_ indicating the call had connected.

"Charles?" Tony asked.

'_Oh Anthony, thank god._' Charles relived voice filtered though the speakers. '_We were all terribly worried about you: we saw you fly that missile into the portal on the TV, then falling and being caught by that large, green creature._'

"Yeah..." Tony said sounding sheepish. "Sorry, I meant to call you earlier, but I fell asleep."

Tony cringed at his excuse. Even though it was the truth, it still was a horrible excuse. And he did feel guilty for worrying everyone, even if it didn't show.

'_Well, I'd expect you to be tired. You flew a missile into space._' Charles said with a small chuckle, feeling much better now that he knew Tony was okay. '_How are you fairing?_'

"I'm a little beat up, but nothing I can't fix with a little energy absorption." Tony said. "I'll be right as rain in a day or so... How's my house?"

'_Well that's a topic changer if I've ever heard one._' Charles chuckled. '_Your house is fine. Though..._'

"'Though' what?" Tony asked, suddenly on alert. "What's wrong? Did someone break my piano? Or... No. Dummy didn't spray someone with his fire extinguisher did he? I'll pay for any dry clean-"

'_No no, nothing at all like that. Nothing's wrong, no one's been sprayed by Dummy. The problem is that no one really wants to leave._' Charles said with a sigh. '_And it's not just the students: Jean has been mesmerized by the view, Hank is smitten with JARVIS, and Logan found your alcohol sta-._'

Suddenly there was a rustle on the other. It sounded like someone had grabbed for the phone but Charles wasn't giving it up without a fight. Tony could only think of one person who would have the nerve to try and grab the phone Charles. Logan. He was proved right a second later when the gruff mans voice filtered though the speakers.

'_Squirt, you there?_' Logan asked, he was obviously victorious in getting the phone from Charles, sometimes those two could be more immature than him.

"Yeah Fur Ball, I'm here." Tony responded, knowing Logan hated the nickname, though to be honest, he didn't really like the nickname 'squirt' either.

'_I told you not to call me that. _Squirt_._' Logan growled.

"Right." Tony sighed, letting it go knowing that they would go round for hours if he continued the name calling. "What did you want Logan? Or can I talk to the Professor again."

'_Fine, I just wanted to ask, what was in that... square bottle with honey brown liquid?_' Logan asked, not sounding sure he was describing it right.

"Which on, you're gonna have to be more specific." Tony sighed, wondering if he'd have ANY alcohol left when he went back. "I have dozens of square bottle with honey brown liquid in them."

'_Not anymore you don't._' Logan mumbled so soft Tony almost couldn't hear it.

"Logan," Tony sighed. "What shelf was it on? Did it have a ribbon on it?"

'_Uh... It was on the top shelf,_' Logan said, sounding like he was looking around for the sure to be empty bottle. '_I think it had a... Oh found it!_'

"Well?" Tony was beginning to get amused.

'_It's a circular shape, not square_' Logan said. '_and it doesn't have any ribbon either._'

"Hmm... a circular bottle on the top shelf... JARVIS?" Tony asked, not even pretending to be thinking about it, he wanted to continue his conversation with charles.

"_I believe he is talking about the Suntory Branded Whisky._" JARVIS said, almost sounding sad. "_Specifically, the 50 Year Old Hibiki._"

Now Tony knew why he sounded sad, it had taken them a few months to even find that bottle, and Tony didn't even get to taste it.

"You hear that fur ball?" Tony asked though the phone. "Why'd you want to know?"

'_I was wondering if you had any more?_' Logan asked.

"It took months to find a Hibiki that old." Tony said slightly angry himself, he had really wanted to try that too. "Logan that bottle was like €1,820 Euros!"

'_Is that a lot?_' Logan asked, sounding unimpressed.

"That's $2,366." Tony deadpanned. "And I didn't even get to try it!"

'_Not my fault.'_ Logan scoffed. _'You should have drank some when you got it. Just find some more._'

"It'll take me months to find another bottle that old." Tony sighed, having had enough of Logan. "Ugh, give the phone back to Charles, Fur Ball."

'_I told you not to call me that Squirt, next time you ca-_' Logan began but was cut off.

'_Anthony? Are you still there?_' Charles voice came though the speakers and Tony let out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah Charles, I'm still here." Tony replied. "Remarkably."

'_Yes, Logan does get carried away._' Charles chuckled. '_What were we talking about before he took the phone?_'

"Uh, I think you were telling me about something that was wrong?" Tony said, thinking back to before the interruption. "Something about 'no one really wanting to leave.'"

'_Ah yes, no one wants to leave, they've all gotten a feel for it here in the short time we've been here._' Charles chuckled.

"You guys don't want to leave?" Tony said, trying to keep the smile out of his voice.

"Yeah well, California does that to people."

'_And a few of the older students are curious to meet you._' Charles said. '_They recognized the Stark Jet and your home... And, Ororo may have promised a showing of your suit._'

"A showing?" Tony hesitated then smiled. "Is this her way of indirectly asking me to come visit?"

'_That is most likely the case._' Charles chuckled. '_You don't have to if you're busy, we all know that you must be immersed in work, helping clean up New York and whatnot._'

"Actually, I'm not. We haven't scheduled when we're sending the one responsible for the attack back to where he came from, and all I've been doing since the end of the fight is sleep." Tony sighed. "Honestly, relaxation with some close family sounds nice: I could use a break from all of this chaos."

'_If it isn't too much trouble._' Charles said, obviously happy at the prospect of seeing Tony again. '_When can we expect you?_'

"I'll be dropping by tonight." Tony said, knowing it was about to be protested.

'_Tonight? That's far too early Anthony._' Charles protested. '_You still need your rest._'

"Please professor, since when do _I_ need rest?" Tony countered playfully.

'_..._'

"That's what I thought." Tony said triumphantly. "I'll see you tonight."

'_Tonight it is then._' Charles sighed, knowing that there was no use in arguing with the eccentric billionaire: the last time they're argued, it was about Tony building a new wheelchair for him, He hadn't wanted one but Tony had gone ahead and built him 3 new wheelchairs... _3!_

"Oh! And don't tell anyone that I'm coming." Tony said, sounding mischievous. "I want to surprise them."

'_Of course you do._' Charles said, and Tony could _hear_ the fond smile on the other side. '_I will see you tonight then._'

"Later." Tony said and JARVIS ended the phone call. "JARVIS contact Fury, I want to know when we're sending Reindeer Games to the stars with Hammer-time."

"_Yes Sir... call connected._" JARVIS said as a click rang out though the lab before it was replaced by Fury's irritated voice.

'_Stark, what do you want?_' Fury growled. '_Some of us actually have work to do._'

"Geez Nicky, you need to loosen your eyepatch: it's seriously affecting your attitude." Tony sniped.

'_I'm hanging up._' Fury deadpanned.

"Easy, calm yourself, I just wanted to know when we're packing up Loki to his send back to Asgard."

'_Two days at 10am in central park._' Fury said in a clipped tone. '_Is that all?_'

"Yep, that's it. Thanks Nicky!" Tony said, but Fury had already hung up. "Well that's rude."

'_Your comments could be considered rather rude as well Sir._" JARVIS pipped up.

"No one asked you." Tony grumbled. "What's the status of the Mark VII?"

"_The chest plate was damaged, the face plate ripped off, courtesy of Mr. Odinson, and the entire suit needs rewiring due to the freezing temperatures of space and also the shocks from the sudden loss of power and decent of temperature._" JARVIS relayed.

"How long would it take to repair?" Tony asked, bringing up a hologram that displayed the information in great detain as JARVIS gave him the shorted version. "Lay it out for me."

"_It would take about 2 weeks to rewire the entire shell, another 3 weeks to smooth all the dents out, and approximately 4 days to upload me into the system along with other minor repair, downloads, upgrades, and weaponizing the suit._" JARVIS reported. "_In all, it would take roughly a month and a half to get the suit ready for battle._"

"Great. Might as well scrap it and start from scratch. Begin a new shell: Mark VIII." Tony sighed, then asked, "Where's the Suit Case Suit?"

"_The Mark V is currently in the living room where everyone is now residing._" JARVIS said. "_Miss Potts brought it with her seeing as you left it in Mr. Hogan's car. It is fully functional._"

"All right, well then, I guess I'll just use that one." Tony hesitated, looking at the clock on the wall that Pepper insisted the he kept down there so he wouldn't loose track of time... good lot that did.

It was nearly 6 at night, meaning it was... 3 in the afternoon in Miami. Good thing Tony was used to time change... at least it wasn't the 6 hour time change Germany had on New York. Tony sighed, realizing it would only take an hour to cross the US to Miami. He would more than likely show up around 4pm if he left now. So he decided to wait an hour or two before going: 6 was more reasonable to call night than 4.

"JARVIS tell me when it's 8pm." Tony ordered. "I'll leave for Miami then."

"_Yes Sir._" JARVIS replied.

Tony decided to get to work on the circuitry for his new suit, it would take him upwards of a week to finish it, so he might as well get a heads start on it. Then he remembered that the Mark VI needed work, he decided to split it: he'd think up ideas for the new suit while repairing the old one. Having JARVIS bring up the Mark VI on it's platform, Tony started unscrewing panels as JARVIS told him what was damaged. Tony worked diligently, nearly fixing both legs and the repulsor in the left hand before he was disturbed.

There was a loud bang on the door to the lab bringing Tony out of his work daze and he looked up to see Pepper and Rhodey standing outside his lab. Tony looked at the clock but realized that he still had the magnifying glass on his head and couldn't read it. Pulling the contraption off his head he looked at Pepper and Rhodey's irritated faces: they had obviously been standing there for a few minutes. Tony asked JARVIS how long they'd been there and what time it was.

"_It is 7:43pm Sir. You have been down here for almost and hour and a half._" JARVIS reported. "_Do you wish me to allow Miss Potts and Colonel Rhodes in? They have been knocking for the past five minutes._"

"Yeah let them in." Tony said quickly as JARVIS opened the doors to the lab and the pair walked in. "What's up?"

"What's up?" Pepper asked, looking exasperated. "You get a mysterious call from some mystery person staying in your home, then you disappear for almost two hours! That's what's wrong!"

"Whoa Pepper, calm down!" Tony said, trying to calm the irate woman. "I was just working on the suit! That's all!"

Tony got up and walked over to where Pepper and Rhodey were standing near the door.

"Seriously Tony, you gotta stop all this hiding, Happy was thinking that maybe you got a blood clot and died down here." Rhodey said, used to his friends antics but still looking worried.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you guys, I just got rapped up in fixing my suit." Tony said, quietly wrapping his arms around Pepper and putting his chin on her head and looking Rhodey in the eye. "Come on, lets go up stairs, I'm done for now anyway. JARVIS, close up the screens and put the Mark VI away and shut down the lab would you?"

"_Of course Sir._" JARIVS replied as the lights went off.

The trio headed upstairs and were met with an odd site. In the middle of the living room was Happy straddling Clint's back, reaching for something the archer was keeping just out of his reach. Clint was laughing and Happy was looking just a bit on this side of desperate to get whatever it was back into his possession. Thor was laughing along with Clint while Bruce was chuckling and Natasha was smiling. Steve was blushing up a storm, which immediately made Tony interested in what Clint was holding.

Tony walked up and snatched the article, a picture, from Clint's hand, causing the man to yell in outrage. Tony looked at the picture, he recognized that it was a still from the security camera in one of his cars. Though that's not was was interesting about picture: it was of the top half of Natasha in nothing but a bra, one of her legs sticking up from behind the seat, she was pulling on her leather cat suit. It was obviously from the story Happy had told them from Brinner.

Tony looked from the picture to Natasha, who was still slightly smiling, back to the picture, then to Happy, looking for an explanation.

"B-boss!" Happy stuttered, he was out of breath and it was obvious that he and Clint had been rolling around for a minute or so. "Thank you."

"What is this crap?" Tony asked, his tone sharp, surprising some of the people in the room. "This is pathetic Happy."

"Hey lay off the guy Stark," Clint argued, easily rolling over and pushing Happy off of him. "It's just a picture."

"Exactly: a picture, of Natasha, in the back of his car," Tony said. "Nearly naked."

Rogers was staring at Tony with a newfound respect; the man cared for his teammates dignity so much.

"This picture is pathetic," Tony said, ripping it in half. "Seriously, I have way better ones than this. JARVIS pull up the file on Natalie Rushman."

Rogers jaw dropped.

"_Yes Sir._" JARVIS answered and a holographic screen popped up with dozens of picture icons on it.

Tony clicked on the first icon and a picture of Natasha laying on a white furry bed in nothing but black lacy lingerie popped up. Tony smirked as he saw Rogers blush a deep shade of red and cover his eyes: the man should have known better.

"Holy..." Happy said, eyes wide.

"Same." Clint said, his eyes nearly as wide as Happy's.

"There's about a hundred different photos in there, pick one and JARVIS'll print it off for you." Tony gave them a serious look; raised eyebrow and everything. "If you're going to be pervs and keep a nude photo of someone, at least make sure it's a hot one." Tony said, shaking his head sadly.

Happy and Clint began looking through the picture in vigorously, and Tony laughed as Rogers looked away from the screen to keep himself modest. Bruce was shaking his head in exasperation, as were Pepper and Rhodey. Thor was laughing louder than ever and Natasha was actually smirking, she obviously found this entire thing entertaining and knew the picture were photoshopped... _Most_ of them anyway.

Tony went to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of Chlorophyll and brought it back with him. He sat on the couch between Pepper and Rhodey, both of whom gave him and his disgusting, green slug drink a glance.

"Want some?" Tony offered, and his friends grimaced and shook their heads. "Your loss."

"Yeah, _our_ loss." Rhodey muttered sarcastically.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before JARVIS announced it was 8pm.

"All right, then, that's my cue to leave." Tony said getting up and stretching with only a slight wince.

"What do you mean?" Pepper asked. "Where are you going?"

"Just a little trip. I have some business to take care of." Tony said, grabbing his suitcase armor from its spot against the wall.

"As Iron Man?" Rogers asked, snapping into his Captain America persona. "Do you need any help?"

"Nope, I got it." Tony said waving him off. "No fighting, just going far away, and I need to be there soon."

"Is everything okay?" Rhodey asked.

"Everything is _fine_." Tony said, but saw that Rhodey didn't believe him. "Seriously, I'm fine. There's nothing wrong, I've just visiting some friends."

"Who are you visiting?" Pepper asked immediately suspicious.

Tony hesitated. Tony _never_ hesitated. Pepper knew the second Tony didn't answer, or deflect in some way, that there was something wrong.

"Hey Pepper, can I talk to you..." Tony paused looking at everyone, who were all looking at him. "In private?"

"Tony what's wrong?" Pepper was getting really worried as Tony pulled her close and began to whisper.

"Nothing's wrong, I just need to talk to you, _alone_." Tony glanced at Rhodey, Happy, and then at the Avengers, looking a bit like he was wary of them.

"Tony?" Rhodey asked, he'd never seen his friend look so... _distrustful_ of anyone before, except maybe Hammer, especially while looking at him.

"Tony, something's obviously wrong." Pepper said, she had seen the look he gave Rhodey and the others. "What's wrong?"

"I just need to tell you something important, but..." Tony sighed, looking at everyone who was watching them before looking at Pepper and shaking his head. "You know what? Never mind, I'll tell you when I get back."

Tony turned around and walked out onto the balcony, yelling a 'laters' as a way of goodbye. Pepper followed after him, leaving the door open. Tony was already putting the suit on when she stepped onto the balcony with him.

"Tony, you're scaring me." Pepper said, her voice trembling a bit. "You're not dying again are you?"

"No Pepper, no no, I'm not dying. I promise." Tony assured his girlfriend, the suit fully assembled around him with the face plate up so she could see his face. "There's just something really big I need to tell you, but it can wait for me to get back... Actually, I'd prefer telling you once I'm back."

"Tell me what?!" Pepper nearly screamed in her frustration. "Tony you're really worrying me here. You're acting so odd. Especially for you."

"It's... This thing I need to tell you is... it's really important to me." Tony said, eyes and face full of emotion that was usually never there. "It's life changing Pep, and I-I..."

"You what?" Pepper whispered, reaching up to place a soft hand on his cheek.

"...I'm scared of your reaction." Tony whispered back, and there was a pregnant pause before Tony began talking again. "I need to go. I'll be back in two days for when we send Loki back to Asgard with Thor."

Tony kissed Pepper on the lips and turned around, the face plate coming down and his repulsors starting up. Pepper stepped back as Tony was propelled into the air. Tony paused in the air giving his usual two fingered salute to Pepper before taking off into the sky. Pepper stood there on the balcony, watching her boyfriend fly off, something heavy in his heart and on his mind, and now whatever it was, she knew it was going to be bugging her for the next two days. Unless she did something about it. Because knowing Tony, he'd probably come back and say it was nothing, just post-battle jitters or the concussion talking. She was going to get to the bottom of what ever it was even if she had to follow Tony to where ever he was going. And she had an idea of where he was headed.

"Happy!" Pepper yelled, wiping the tears from her eyes and heading back inside. "Schedule for the plane for a flight later tonight."

"Destination?" Happy asked confused as Pepper walked passed them and towards the elevator.

Pepper paused in front of the doors and turned around, a determined look on her face and she answered.

"Malibu."

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**E/N~ So What'd You Think? I Hope You Liked It. XD**

**The Same Poll Is Still Up. I Guess I Just Want A Larger Opinion. So If You Haven't Voted Yet, Please Do So. & Thank You To Those Who Have Already Voted. **

**Oh & ALERT ALERT! Again, There Will Be _NO CHAPTER NEXT WEEK!_ I've Got Finals Next Week & I've Got To Study Super Hard! So Sorry. **

**If You Want You Can Rant At Me All You Want In A Review! XD **


	14. Introducing The Family

**A/N~ Hey Everyone, Sorry I Didn't Upload Last Week, I Was SUPER Busy! I Had Mentioned That There Was A Possibility That There Wouldn't Be A Chapter That Week A Few Weeks Ago, But It Wasn't For Sure. So I'm Sorry I Didn't Say Anything In My Last Chapter. I Honestly Didn't Think I'd Be That Busy. ANYWAY, There Might Not Be A Chapter Next Week… I KNOW! I'M SORRY! I Hurt Myself Sunday & I Can Barely Walk Without Being In Pain. Let Alone Sit Up. Seriously, When I Try & Sit Up It Feels Like I'm Being Stabbed In The Lower Back & In The Thigh. It's HORRIBLE! But It's Not For Sure, So There MAY Be A Chapter… We'll Just Have To See If I'm Feeling Better Or At Least Not In So Much Pain.**

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**Disclaimer~ Not Mine… Seriously, You People Need To Stop Thinking Any Of This Is Actually Mine, I'll Get In Trouble. **

**Warning~ Um… Unbeta'd & A WAY OOC Tony… I Guess. I Tried To Keep Him In Character, But I Think I Did A Horrible Job. So Just Think Of It As Tony Being Out Of His Super Hero/Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist Persona & Him Being Put Into A Family Type Mode. I Went A Bit Out Of My Usually Comfort Zone While Writing This… I Usually Try Not To Write Family Stuff, But That's What I Did Here. So Please Tell Me How I Did. & ENJOY! XD**

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**_Ch.14_**

**_Introducing The Family_**

**_~3,010~_**

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_Pepper stood there on the balcony, watching her boyfriend fly off, something heavy in his heart and on his mind, and now whatever it was, she knew it was going to be bugging her for the next two days. Unless she did something about it. Because knowing Tony, he'd probably come back and say it was nothing, just post-battle jitters or the concussion talking. She was going to get to the bottom of what ever it was even if she had to follow Tony to where ever he was going. And she had an idea of where he was headed. _

"_Happy!" Pepper yelled, wiping the tears from her eyes and heading back inside. "Schedule for the plane for a flight later tonight."_

"_Destination?" Happy asked confused as Pepper walked passed them and towards the elevator. _

_Pepper paused in front of the doors and turned around, a determined look on her face and she answered. _

"_Malibu."_

Normally it would take an upwards of 7 Hours to travel, on a normal airline, the near 3 thousand miles from New York to Malibu. In a Stark Jet, it would take closer to 4. However, in the Iron Man Suit, Tony Stark could easily make it across the country in less than 2. Which begged the question, why had it taken him almost 3 hours to arrive at his home in Malibu, California?

Traveling that far with nothing to take his mind off things, it allowed Tony to focus on his conversation with Pepper. He really did have something life changing to tell her, and he was scared of her reaction. He wanted to tell her he was a mutant. Over the years he had learned that she didn't really care about mutants. Even after all the bad press that had been spread around about them because of the evil mutants wreaking havoc, she didn't really care and treated them like normal people.

_They're just like people, they just have something extra, I don't see what the big deal is._

She had said it like it was the easiest thing in the world, when it was magic to his ears. She was the first non-mutant he had ever heard say that besides his mother. Pepper even went as far as making SI mutant friendly. She was incredible about it. Pepper was the first person Tony wanted to tell about his powers, but before he did anything, Tony wanted to ask Charles opinion first.

Tony thought about when he called Pepper with that nuke on his back. He wouldn't have told her. It wasn't something to be told over the phone, but he did want to tell her. He realized that when he was flying that nuke though the portal. He had promised himself that he would tell her if he survived, which he had. And now he had, no, he _needed_, to tell her. He wanted to.

But he needed to ask Charles and Jean, and Hank and Ororo, and Scott and maybe even Logan about it. Maybe afterwards, he could introduce her to them: his family. So Tony took an extra hour to travel the distance, using the time to think about the situation and how he was going to tell his family he wanted to tell Pepper he was a mutant and if she didn't hate him afterwards that he wanted them to meet her. He kinda wanted them to meet her even if he didn't tell her about his powers.

It was nearly 8pm when he touched down on the landing pad on his roof. Charles was there, waiting for him once he had landed. He left his Suit on, so he could impress the kids. Kids were _always_ impressed with his Suits.

"Anthony." Charles greeted. "Nice to see you again."

"Charles." Tony nodded back, his face plate rising to reveal a fond smile. "Good to see you. I'd give you a hug, but I know how you feel about hugs... And I'm afraid I'd crush you."

"Indeed." Charles smiled, turning in his wheelchair and heading to the door leading inside. "Now, come inside. I'm afraid that Jean will have noticed your mind up here and will probably be filled with delight."

"It that your kind way of saying that she's going to squeal when she sees me?" Tony asked laughing when Charles nodded seriously.

They headed towards the door, but before they even reached it, it flew open and there stood Jean, Ororo, Scott, Hank(who was wearing the holographic bracelets Tony had made him, so he wasn't fluffy and blue anymore), and, surprisingly, Logan. All of them looked to the professor, who simply smiled at them, then to the metal covered figure of Tony. Tony simply waved with a nervous 'Sup.'

There was a second of silence before all Hell broke loose. Jean and Ororo sprinted towards him while the rest simply ran at him, tackling him once they reached him. It was an odd site to see and one you'd never forget: a group of 5 people, full grown adults, I remind you, tackling Iron Man, the worlds' savior, to the ground. Tony laughed, thankful he'd kept his Suit on, or he'd have been squashed.

"If I didn't have my... Suit on, you'd all... have crushed me... by now!" Tony said though his laughing, which must have been contagious, because now everyone was laughing with him.

It took almost 5 whole minutes for them to all calm down and untangle themselves to let Tony stand. Charles simply sat on the sidelines watching, with that amused grin he always wore, as the family he'd helped raise greet their youngest member.

After a greeting of a few hugs; Ororo and Jean just couldn't wait for him to take the armor off so they could give him real, warm hugs, some slaps to the back; not that he could feel Logan or Scott's attempts to knock him off balance, and a handshake from Hank, they all went inside. Tony was almost immediately swarmed by children of all ages. Tony was shocked to see so many of them. Despite knowing the number of students, seeing them was a far cry then just the imagination. It definitely was a major contrast to when he was a student.

As he suspected, the children were enamored with his Suit. Iron Man was an American hero, heck, he was a WORLD hero! And the fact that they'd been staying in Iron Man's home for the last few days and now were actually getting to MEET him? It was safe to say that these kids were thinking they could now die happy. Tony showed them some of the features of the Suit, the kid friendly ones anyway, and that itself took nearly an hour, but Tony was having fun, and he even let a few of the older teens try on the gauntlets and shoot some targets on the roof.

By 12:30pm it was way past bed time for everyone, except the adults of course, to go to bed. The kids whined, but Tony promised that he'd still be there in the morning, that he was staying two days. The kids cheered, but it was short lived when Jean and Scott shooed them off to their beds. With all the kids now asleep, it left Tony and his small family to talk. There were some things they needed to discus.

Tony de-armored and, grabbing a bottle of water, sat on the couch. Jean and Ororo sitting on either side of him. Scott, Logan, and Hank sat opposite them on the other couch, and Charles sat in his wheel chair off to the side.

"That was fun." Tony said sincerely. "I always forget how much fun I have with you guys."

"You should definitely visit us more." Ororo said. "We miss you."

"I know. Sorry, I've just been really busy." Tony apologized sincerely. "After everything that's happened with the Iron Man suits, and Stark Industries, I've been swamped. Then there was the building of the tower in New York, and there's going to be more of them built too."

"Well you moved into the one in New York right?" Hank asked.

"Yeah, so I can totally visit more, or you can come visit me." Tony smiled.

"That's awesome. I wanted to come see that Stark Tower." Scott said, shooting Jean and Charles jealous glances.

"Well, I think I'm going to rename it into the 'Avenger's Tower.'" Tony said. "The Avengers are probably going to be assigned to live there."

"What's the Avengers?" Logan asked confused.

"It's the team I worked with to stop that invasion." Tony shrugged. "We work well, but SHIELD is in control... so you probably shouldn't come by."

"What? Why not?" Scott whined.

"SHIELD's not mutant friendly." Tony said. "I'm sure of it."

They all stayed quiet for a minute before Tony cleared his throat.

"Hey um... Guys?" Tony said hesitantly. "I got something to ask you. Need your opinion on it."

"What is it Anthony?" Charles asked. "You can ask us anything."

Everyone nodded in agreement, wondering what Tony could need to ask them. They had learned early on that if Tony didn't know something, he would try to figure it out on his own and wouldn't ask for something, unless it was very important and/or involved them. Tony cleared his throat again and sat up straiter, more proof that this was, indeed, something important.

"Well, um..." Tony hesitated. "Well, my recent trip to space has allowed me some light into something I've been wanting to do for awhile, but I'd like to hear your opinion on this first, since it may directly involve you all at some point."

"What is it?" Ororo asked, gently laying a hand on Tony's knee.

"I want to tell Pepper." Tony said quietly.

"Tell her?" Scott asked.

"Yeah." Tony answered. "She's the only one I've met besides my mom who doesn't mind mutant. You know how my company supports them?"

Everyone nodded.

"It wasn't my idea. Pepper did that." Tony smiled softly. "Anyway, I really want to tell her about me being a mutant... What do you think?"

"I think that's sweet." Ororo smiled. "You should tell her."

"Yeah, tell her." Scott smiled.

"Really?" Tony asked surprised.

"Of course." Jean said. "You really like her?"

"Well, yeah." Tony looked down, a bit of red staining his cheeks; he wasn't used to talking to people about stuff like this, even with them. "I love her."

"That's cute, Squirt." Logan smirked around his beer bottle.

Tony glared as Logan chuckled, but was grateful at the same time.

"Logan." Hank playfully warned, before turning to Tony. "You should tell her. She doesn't seem to mind mutants, in fact, according to you, she supports us."

"Well yeah, she supports mutants, she hates all kinds of discrimination." Tony said, though he still sounded hesitant.

"Then you should tell her."

"Hold on a sec. Squirt." Logan said, sitting up straight but retaining his calm tone. "Sure you've known this woman for a long time, and she doesn't seems to _hate_ mutants, but that doesn't mean she wants to _date_ one."

"What's that supposed to me?" Tony demanded.

"Logan." This time Hank's warning wasn't playful at all.

"No, how do we know she wont get pissed and out him, and possibly us, to the public?" Logan asked, with no real anger or animosity towards Pepper; it was more like he was asking for the time. "Or maybe she'd rat us out to that SHIELD organization you were talking about before? How do you know she can be trusted?"

Tony was furious. How dare Logan insinuate that Pepper wouldn't want to date him because he was a mutant, she wasn't that shallow. And how DARE he even _suggest_ that she would rat them out to SHIELD. She hated SHIELD probably more than Tony himself did. Pepper was the most trustworthy person he knew, next to Charles.

"How dare you!" Tony growled as he stood up and glared at Logan, who was sitting calmly next to Hank. "You have no right to talk about Pepper like that you ass hole! You know nothing about her!"

Everyone in the room could feel the tension and electricity in the air, could practically taste the sparks on the tips of their tongues.

"You don't know the first thing about Pepper! She's the most trustworthy person I know! She'd never betray that trust by telling the public or _SHIELD_." Tony spit out the last word like it was poison in his mouth. "She hates them more than me! And Pepper would not dump me just because I'm a _mutant_! She's not like that! She doesn't pretend to be someone else to get the approval of others!"

At this Logan stood up and looked down at Tony and smirked.

"Then what are you hesitating for moron? You don't need to ask us for our opinions: you obviously have this all figured out, so just tell her you idiot." With that Logan turned and walked towards the kitchen, presumably to grab another beer.

Everyone stared after him. Tony looked like he had just gotten smacked in the face with a flipflop. Everyone's eyes slowly flittered to Tony. He stood there for nearly an entire minute as he processed what Logan had just said. Then all of a sudden he collapsed back onto the sofa with a great sigh.

"Tony?" Jean asked worriedly.

"Oh Thor." Tony mumbled. "The world is ending again."

"What?" Scott asked confused.

"The world's ending." Tony repeated. "Fur Ball just made a point. He never makes points, therefore the world must be ending again."

"I HEARD THAT!" Came a yell from the kitchen. Logan and his stupid super hearing.

Everyone was quiet for a second before they all burst out in laughter. Logan had rejoined them at one point and was chuckling along with them. It took them several minutes to calm down. Tony was still giggling like a school girl when JARVIS spoke up.

"_Sir?_"

"Not now J." Tony dismissed, trying to calm himself down.

"_But Sir, you have-_" JARVIS started but was cut off by Tony.

"I said, not now JARVIS." Tony said, finally stopping his giggling. "Despite the hilarity of the situation, Logan does have a point."

"Damn right I do." Lagan agreed. "It was stupid of you to ask. You should have known that we'd have said you should."

"So I'm going to tell her when I get back." Tony said, ignoring Logan. "Or maybe the next time I see her. That'd probably be bes-"

"_Sir, this is important._" JARVIS interrupted. "_If you wish to tell Miss Potts the next time you see her, that's going to be sooner than you are awa-_"

"Tell me what?"

They all looked up to see Pepper standing in the door way. They all looked to Tony, who looked like a deer in the headlights: eyes wide, mouth open, and completely still. Jean almost chuckled as Tony's thoughts flittered past her mind:

_Oh god! This is too soon! Wait, maybe if I don't move she wont see me! No, wait that with wild animals! Does Pepper count as a wild animal... no she's more like an animal trainer. I'M the wild animal... I should probably run now-NO! I can't run! I just said I'd tell her the next time I saw her... I should have listened to JARVIS. I could have prepared a bit first... Crap. WHAT DO I SAY!?_

Though as comical as Tony's thoughts where, she held her giggles to herself. She was more interested in Pepper's thoughts:

_Well, this is odd. Who are these people? And was Tony just __**giggling**__ a second ago? That's just creepy. But I wonder what Tony wants to tell me... It has to be the same thing he was talking about before he left. Oh god I hope he's not dying again. No he doesn't look it, in fact, besides that cut on his head that's nearly gone, he looks better than he's been in a long time. He seems really happy. Whoever these people are, they mean a lot to him. I wonder who they are. Better be polite and introduce myself._

"Hello," Pepper greeted them in a professional manner. "I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting. I'm Pepper Potts. Tony's CEO/PA/Girlfriend."

At this Tony seemed to snap out of his daze and he stood up.

"PEPPER!" He all but screamed. "What are you doing here?"

"I was worried." Pepper told him honestly. "And you were being shady when you left. I had a feeling you were coming here, so I followed you." Pepper gave him a 'duh' look than made Logan snort into his beer.

"Right well..." Tony became quiet, not knowing what to say.

"Who are these people Tony?" Pepper asked quietly. "Maybe some introductions?"

"Oh right!" Tony exclaimed and stood next to Pepper, putting his arm around her waist. "Guys, this is Pepper Potts, she's my CEO/PA/Girlfriend."

Tony introduced her the exact same way Pepper had just a second ago, causing everyone to chuckle, even Pepper. Tony looked around confused.

"What?" Tony asked confused.

"I already introduced myself Tony." Pepper said softly with a fond expression on her face.

"Oh." Tony blushed a bit. "Okay, then..."

"Tony." Jean said, nudging Tony with her foot and motioning to the group with her head.

"OH! Right." Tony let go of Pepper and ran behind the couch where the girls sat. "Introductions, right."

Everyone chuckled again. Tony was so oblivious some times.

"Right, this is Jean Grey." Tony said, motioning to the red headed woman. "She's like an older sister to me." Tony moved on quickly before either of the woman could make a comment. "This is Ororo Munroe; she's like a second mom. This is Charles Xavier; he's been my mentor and a father figure since I was 17." He said as he moved around to stand behind the wheelchair, before quickly moving behind Hank. "This is Dr. Hank McCoy, he's like my older brother, and an earlier version of Bruce. They'd probably get along now that I think about it." He moves to stand behind Scott. "This is Scott Summers. I'd say he's another older brother, but I always found him to act more like a little brother, even though he's a few years older than me." Tony moved to stand behind Logan, ignoring the outcry from Scott. "And this is Logan: I call him Fur Ball. I'd say he's the rascal of the group, but that's my spot. He's more of the understanding yet ass hole-ish uncle." At this Logan only shrugged and sipped his beer, accepting his role for what it was.

Tony stood up and smiled at Pepper warily. Pepper seemed a bit taken aback by the introduction. Tony spread his arms wide and announced something that she didn't think Tony would ever say.

"Pepper, this is my family."

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**E/N~ So What'd You Think? Now Pepper's Met Everyone… Next Chapter Pepper Finds Out. So That May Be Next Week Or The Week After That, Depending On My Pain Levels.*Crosses Fingers* **

**Anyway, Please Tell Me What You Think Of This Chapter! Give Me Feedback On How I Did Or If I Didn't Do Well At All. **

**Some Type Of Sneak Peak Of Next Chapter? Hmm… I Haven't Written Much Of It Yet But… OH! I Know. We're Going To Find Out What Pepper Promised Tony When Phil Showed Up At The Tower. I've Decided To Have That In There, So Look Forward To That. I Think I'll Make Tony A Bit Childlike With His Excitement For That Promised Activity. ;D **


	15. I'm A Mutant!

**A/N~ Hey Everyone, I Am So Sorry. I Was All Ready To Post Yesterday, But Then My Brother Took My Computer & When I Got It Back, He Had Shut Down My Computer, Which Shut Down All My Stuff & I Lost The Last Almost 2 Whole Pages Of The Chapter. So I've Been Writing Like Mad Trying To Get It Back To Being Perfect... Not Sure How I Did. But I Hope You Liked It. **

**Good News, My Back Is Doing MUCH Better. I Got Myself A Heating Pad & It Worked WONDERS! So I Was Able To Write A Decent Chapter... I Think. ;P Anyway I Know It's Been Awhile, But I Hope You Like This. ENJOY! **

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**Disclaimer~ I Write This Stuff, & I'm So Proud Of Myself, But Then I Remember It's Not Mine, & I Get Sad, But Then I Also Remember That I Can Take Creative License With It & MAke The Characters What They Aren't Without Screwing Up The Regular Story Line, & I Get Happy Again. XD **

**Warning~ Not Much, Just More OOC Tony. That's About It. So ENJOY! X3 **

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**_Ch.15_**

**_I'm A Mutant!_**

**_~2,979~_**

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_Tony stood up and smiled at Pepper warily. Pepper seemed a bit taken aback by the introduction. Tony spread his arms wide and announced something that she didn't think Tony would ever say. _

"_Pepper, this is my family."_

Pepper just stood there. She wasn't really sure what to do or say to that. She knew that Tony's blood family were all dead, and it was obvious that these people weren't actually Tony's family. But they were close enough that Tony considered them his family. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to feel about that. She was happy that he had these people and a bit angry that he hadn't introduced them before: they had known each other for over a decade and had been dating a little over a year now. Tony had met her family, even before they began dating, and now she was meeting his after so long.

She realized that everyone was staring at her and she shifted her stance a bit before clearing her throat.

"It's nice to meet you all." She said with a smile, then she thought of something. "Is this what you wanted to tell me Tony?"

She thought that it fit. He was nervous and scared of her reaction. Maybe it was because he had waited for so long before he introduced them. It made sense. Well, it made sense until Tony adopted a nervous look and shuffled his feet a little. That was a Tony Stark 'no' if she ever saw one.

"Uh... No, this wasn't what I wanted to tell you..." Tony hesitated again.

"Well, you know you can tell me anything right?" Pepper said soothingly and reached for his hand, taking it gently in hers. "It wont change the way I feel about you."

Tony gave her a small smile and squeezed her hand with a small nod.

"Do you want to go in the other room to tell me?" Pepper asked softly.

"No. It involves them... So here's fine." Tony said.

"They can move into the Tower if you want." Pepper said.

"That's not what I was going to say." Tony said, sounding slightly amused.

"Well, either way, they can." Pepper said.

"Thank you, that means a lot." Tony smiled. "But this is important. I want you to not interrupt me until I'm done. I don't think I'll finish unless I get it out all at once."

Pepper nodded and noticed how serious this was for Tony. She also noticed how everyone else was watching them; her intently and Tony worriedly. She realized they cared for Tony as much as, if not more than, Tony did for them.

"Well..." Tony began, not sure how to say it. "Remember a few years ago, when the news about mutants came out and you started the policy about no tolerance against discrimination?"

"Of course." Pepper nodded, wonder where that came from.

"Well that meant a lot to me." Tony said, squeezing Pepper's hand tightly, but not painfully. "And not just because it was the right thing to do, but because it affected a lot of people I care about."

Pepper was starting to catch on. She glanced behind Tony at the group, wondering if these were the people he was talking about. They probably were, considering the fond expressions on their faces. Pepper looked back to Tony, who was looking at their joined hands, and she gave his hands a small squeeze of encouragement.

"And... and it also affected me as well." Tony said quietly. He really didn't want to say it, to admit it. Sure he wasn't ashamed of what he was, but he had never actually said it to someone who didn't already know. "Pepper I'm..."

"You're what?" Pepper asked softly.

She knew what he was about to say. She was smarter than she looked and could put things together easily, especially if Tony was being finicky like he was and avoiding actually saying it. He wanted her to say it, but she knew what this kind of thing meant, and for him to not to actually want to say it out loud... It was really important to him, and her, that he say it himself. He looked up and straight in her eyes.

"I'm a mutant Pepper." Tony said.

Pepper just stood there holding Tony's hands and staring into his eyes for a second before leaning in and kissing him. She pulled back and looked him in the eye and smiled.

"That wasn't so hard was it?" She asked.

"You have no idea." Tony smiled and leaned his forehead against hers and sheepishly asked, "You're not mad?"

She pulled away and gave him a stern look.

"You can bet you shiny metal suit I'm mad." She said in her peeved-Pepper tone, causing Tony to look at her wide eyed; he knew that tone, nothing good for came from _that_ tone.

"Uh, Pepper?" Tony said warily as Pepper took her hands from his and put them on her hips and gave him the 'Perpetual-Child Stance' as he called it. It meant she was about to start treating him like a child.

With lightening fast speeds, that even Logan couldn't follow, Tony cupped his hears with his hands, blocking Pepper's hand as she reached for his ear. An irritated look came over her face as she blocked her attack.

"Anthony Edward Stark, lower you hand this second." Pepper demanded.

"Nu uh!" Tony said as he took a step back while shaking his head back and forth. "No way Pep. I don't need a bruised ear."

Pepper sighed and it seemed like she had relented but Tony knew better and took another step back, out of Pepper's reach, before he let his arms fall to his sides. Pepper opened her mouth to say something when her eyes widened in what seemed to be fear.

"Dummy no!" She yelled, reaching her arm out supposedly to stop the bot.

Tony's eyes widened and he quickly turned around to stop the bot from spraying someone with the fire extinguisher. But when he turned around there was no Dummy, and it took him less than a second to realize what Pepper had done before he felt Pepper's hand grasp his ear.

"Ow ow ow ow owww~" Tony yelled as Pepper gripped his ear and pulling downward, causing him to bend over so his ear wasn't pulled off.

Tony noticed that his family was staring at them with amused looks, and Logan and Scott, the bastards, were actually laughing at him.

"This is not funny!" Tony whined. "It hurts!"

"Tony Stark, how could you not tell me you were a mutant?!" Pepper asked angrily. "Did you think I'd hate you? That I'd dump you or quit or something?"

"No! I didn't think any of that!" Tony said hurriedly.

"Then what? Did you not trust me?"

"NO! I trust you with my life Pep!" Tony said. "It's just..."

"Just what?" Pepper said and let go of his ear, the anger in her voice was gone. She wasn't really that angry, just a tad hurt that he hadn't told her.

"I haven't ever told anyone before." Tony said quietly, as he rubbed his sore ear. "You are the first person I've ever told."

Pepper raised her eyebrow at that. It was obvious that the group behind them knew, so either they figured it out or he told them. And it was no offense to them, but they didn't look all that smart, except the older man in the wheelchair.

"No offense taken." Jean said with a smile.

Pepper blinked and looked at Jean, wondering if she'd said that out loud.

"No, you didn't say it out loud." Jean answered her unasked question.

Pepper looked taken aback and Tony placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at Tony with wide eyes and a hand to her mouth and Tony simply smiled with a nod.

"You're all mutants?" She asked.

"Yep, one big family of mutants." Tony smiled happily.

"Jean and Charles are Telepaths." Tony began, knowing none of them minded that he told Pepper their mutations. If they did, they'd say something. "Meaning they can read your mind. They don't to it often, they'll respect your privacy and stuff. And their good at keeping secrets. Jean is also has Telekinesis. Scott has Laser Vision, hence the sunglasses indoors, Ororo controls the weather... I think you'd like Thor." Tony said, looking Ororo, making Pepper smile a little.

When she met Thor, he had introduced himself as 'Thor Odinson, prince and future king of Asgard, and God of Thunder!' Now she knew some of the tales of the God of Thunder, and so far they were true: he was very loud indeed. She'd also seen the footage of him controlling lightening on the News.

"Logan has super healing and metal butter knives that come out of his knuckles." To prove Tony's point, Logan let the middle blade come out of his left hand, essentially flipping Tony off. Tony huffed but Pepper actually giggled at that. "And Hank, when he's not wearing these bracelets," Tony bent over the couch and grabbed one of Hanks wrists and lifted his shirt to show Pepper. "He's blue and fluffy."

"Sounds adorable." Pepper said after a second.

Hank blushed a bit, causing everyone to laugh, which only caused him to blush more.

"And what about you Tony?" Pepper asked as they all calmed down.

"Me?" Tony shuffled his feet a bit, obviously a bit embarrassed.

"Yes, what are your powers?" She asked curiously.

"Well, I have Telekinesis too." Tony said, but then added, "But I also have Electrokinesis."

"Electrokinesis?" Pepper asked confused. She'd never heard of that before.

"Yeah, I control electricity." Tony said, slipping into his explaining persona. "I can direct the flow of electricity, turn it into energy, move it where ever I want and use it for whatever I want."

"So the reactor?" She asked curiously, because if he could control electricity, what were the possibilities with the reactor?

"I don't mess with it." Tony said seriously. "It's too dangerous, I don't know how much electricity my body can hold, but I know how much the reactor puts off and I don't really want to chance burning myself from the inside out."

Pepper nodded. She was about to ask something relate to his powers when she suddenly thought of something.

"Hey, you said that Logan has super healing right?" Tony nodded. "Do you?"

Tony's eyes widened in surprise. How had she come to that?

"Kinda, yeah. How'd you know?" Tony asked confused.

"Well, you've always been a fast healer, like Rhodey said, freakishly fast, and then you said that Logan had healing abilities." Pepper shrugged, the smirked. "I put 2 and 2 together and, hey! Guess what? I got 4."

Tony smirked a bit at that. Pepper was taking this way better than he thought she would. She was proving that everything he had said to Logan was right.

"Tony? Question?" Tony nodded. "Does anyone else know?"

"No." Tony shook his head. "Only the people in this house know. So that's... what 40 people?"

"_It is 45 counting you all and the children._" JARVIS said helpfully. "_46 counting me._"

"You always count J." Tony said, knowing that made the AI happy. "But only us in this room actually know my powers. The children probably only guess that I'm a mutant too. I haven't said anything though. Have you guys?"

Tony directed the question at his family, all of whom shook their heads in the negative.

"That's a lot of people..." Pepper said thoughtfully, then what they said fully caught up with her. "Wait, children?!"

"Yeah. Charles runs a school for gifted children, I went when I was younger." Tony said. "The school is based in New York, but with the invasion..."

"You had them all moved here during the fight so they wouldn't get hurt." Pepper finished for him, remembering what Tony has said back at the tower.

"Pretty much." Tony shrugging his kind act off.

"You're so sweet." Pepper said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Tony blushed a bit, and Pepper had never seen Tony blush this much since he had met her parents. Her parents kept talking about marriage and kids, even though they hadn't even been together at that time, her parents had just assumed since they practically lived together in Tony's mansion. Tony blushed up a storm when her father asked him how many kids he wanted.

Tony despite his blushing cheeks turned his head and caught her lips with his in a tender kiss. Her arms wrapped around shoulders and his around her waist and pulled her closer to him. They became immersed in the kiss: lips molding together in perfect synchronicity, like they were made for each other.

Pepper didn't know how long they stood there kissing and embracing each other; it couldn't have been longer than a minute, but suddenly there was an awkward cough that came from the couch. She and Tony turned, breaking the kiss, to see where the noise came from. They saw the group of people looking at them, expressions varying from fondness: Ororo, Jean, and Charles, to embarrassed; Hank and Scott just a bit, to disgusted; Logan, though Tony knew it was in jest.

"Get a room you two." Scott said jokingly.

Pepper blushed a bit but kept her arms around Tony.

"This is technically my house," Tony told them. "So I can kiss my girlfriend where ever I want inside it."

"Tony." Pepper said, her blush still in place.

"Fine." Tony relented with a smile.

"Well, I do believe that it is well past everyones bed times." Charles said, always the voice of reason.

Everyone groaned and Pepper chuckled.

"No he's right." Pepper said, she was used to taking care of Tony and knew he would be unwilling to go to sleep after sleeping all day. "It's way past your bed time Mr." She poked Tony in the shoulder.

"But Pe~p" Tony whined, drawing out her nickname. "I've been sleeping all day."

Pepper got an idea. She stood on her tippy toes and leaned close so she could talk directly into his ear.

"Remember what I promised you back at the tower?" Pepper whispered. "When you were done with your homework?"

Tony's eyes widened and an excited smile morphed its way one his face. He had completely forgotten about it, but now that he thought back, oh boy did he remember what she had promised him.

"Right, everyone off to bed, it's nighty night time." Tony said quickly, such a serious look on his face was a drastic change to the whiny face he had just a few seconds ago that it was comical. "Come on Pepper, time for bed."

Tony began to drag a laughing Pepper from the room, leaving everyone else staring after them either confused or amused, it was a fine line. Tony got half way down the hall before he realized something.

"JARVIS?" He called out.

"_Yes Sir?_" JARVIS replied.

"Is anyone sleeping in my room?"

"_No."_ JARVIS answered, causing Tony to breathe a sigh of relief. _"There were enough rooms that no one has used the master bedroom._"

"Thanks J." Tony said as he and Pepper approached the door to his room.

"_Anything for you Sir._" JARVIS replied before becoming silent.

Tony opened the door enthusiastically and pushed Pepper inside. He slammed the door behind him turing to eye Pepper with such intensity she was forced to take a step back, unfortunately, she was standing right in front of the bed and this caused her to fall back onto said bed. Tony eyed Pepper, their eyes connecting and he smiled predatorily.

"Uh Tony?" Pepper asked, slightly scared for her own well being.

"Nuh uh. No talking." Tony said starting to pull off his shirt. "This is happening _now_, before you try and back out."

"I'm not going to back out Tony." Pepper said, leaning back on her hands. "I'm ready when you are."

Tony kicked off his shoes and unbuttoned his pants.

"Then take off your shoes: you know the rules for the bed." Tony said shucking off his pants, leaving him in nothing but his boxers.

"Yeah yeah, no shoes on the bed." Pepper said, slipping her high heals off and setting them carefully on the ground next to the bedside dresser.

Tony walked over to Pepper and kissed her. Putting both hands on either side of her face. When he pulled away they were both breathless. He stared into her eyes with an eager look in his eyes. Then he climbed onto the bed and laid down behind her.

When Pepper turned around she saw Tony laying on his stomach with his head on the pillows. He looked over his shoulder impatiently.

"Are you going to give me that massage you promised me or what?"

Pepper just rolled her eyes as she crawled across the large bed and straddled his back and placing her hands on his shoulders.

"Right." Pepper said starting the massage. "You better appreciate this."

"I appreciate everything you do Pep." Tony moaned as Pepper's fingers dug into his tense muscles. "Oh that feels good."

Pepper continued the massage until her hands were nearly numb, but when she hopped off Tony's back, the billionaire was fast asleep. Pepper smiled down at the sleeping man; he was a perfect picture of relaxation and Pepper's heart warmed knowing that he was okay. She had been really worried with how he had been acting, but knowing that everything was fine and he was healthy made her so happy. She got up off the bed and redressed in her night gown and climbed back into bed with her boyfriend. Even in his sleep, Tony felt Pepper's presence and encircled her with his arms, drawing her against his chest. Pepper hummed in comfort and fell into a calm and restful sleep, knowing that everything was fine.

Her last thought as she slipped into unconsciousness was, _Tony's definitely showing me his powers tomorrow. _

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**E/N~ So, What'd You Think? Did You Like It Or Hate It? Was It Anticlimactic? Boring? HORRIBLE? Or Did You Think It Was Okay? Totally In Character(For The Story)? Was It Great? Please Tell Me What You Think! It Really Means A Lot To Me. **

**Also, I Still Have That Damn Poll Up About Magneto & Loki Joining Forces. It's Tied Still, So If Those Who Haven't Voted, Actually Voted, It Would Help A Lot. Please? **

**Anyway, Thanx For Reading! X3 **


	16. Friendly Fights

**A/N~ Hey Everyone! Got This Chapter Done On Time! I Know It's A Bit Short Compared To The Rest Of Them, But I Wanted To Stop Right There & I Couldn't Think Of Anything Else To Make It Longer. Sorry, But I Hope You Like It. ALSO, I Put Up A New Poll, I Got The Results From The Last One, I'll Put Them At The Bottom. So Check Out My New Poll After You Read This Please. XD**

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**Disclaimer~ I Do NOT Own. T-T *Sniff***

**Warning~ Fuzzy Feelings… Just A Bit, Not Too Much.**

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**_Ch.16_**

**_Friendly Fights_**

**_~2,033~_**

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_Pepper continued the massage until her hands were nearly numb, but when she hopped off Tony's back, the billionaire was fast asleep. Pepper smiled down at the sleeping man; he was a perfect picture of relaxation and Pepper's heart warmed knowing that he was okay. She had been really worried with how he had been acting, but knowing that everything was fine and he was healthy made her so happy. She got up off the bed and redressed in her night gown and climbed back into bed with her boyfriend. Even in his sleep, Tony felt Pepper's presence and encircled her with his arms, drawing her against his chest. Pepper hummed in comfort and fell into a calm and restful sleep, knowing that everything was fine. _

_Her last thought as she slipped into unconsciousness was, Tony's definitely showing me his powers tomorrow. _

When Tony woke up, he found that he was alone. He was sprawled out on his bed in nothing but his red and gold boxers. A thin sheet the only thing covering him, barely, the blanket having been kicked to the ground. His pillow was damp with drool and he clung to it as if it were Pepper herself.

Tony slowly sat up, for the first time in months, not feeling sore. The massage Pepper had given him was a literal life saver. After playing with the younger children the night before, he knew his back would have been sore without it. Pepper is a serious miracle worker.

Rubbing his eyes, Tony got up and headed to the bathroom as JARVIS told him the weather, temperature, and the surf, as a good morning. Tony yawned as JARVIS started the shower and he stepped in, marveling as the hot water ran over his tired body. His bruised back had been completely healed, as was the cut on his forehead. His knee was still sore, but the swelling was nearly completely gone.

After showering, Tony got dressed in some jeans and a Black Sabbath T-shirt and headed towards the kitchen: he was peckish. Entering the kitchen, the scene Tony walked into was something that warmed his heart and brought a smile to his face. Pepper, along with Jean, Ororo and a young, energetic girl he'd met the night before, named Kitty, were attempting to make breakfast for everyone. Really, it was hard for Tony not to laugh at the thought. The house was holding 45 people, several of whom could put away enough food to challenge Thor, so really, 4 people trying to make that much food was pretty funny.

"I think we should probably just order catering." Tony said, announcing his presence in the kitchen.

They all turned around and seeing Tony, Pepper, ran up to him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek.

"Aww." Kitty cooed a them.

"Oh hush, Kitty." Ororo said, not sounding all that scolding. She turned to Tony. "I agree. It would be easier to call in catering for breakfast."

"See, that's what I said." Jean said, "But Pepper and Kitty just insisted that we try and cook for 40 plus people."

"Yeah, that'd take till lunch." Tony laughed, putting an arm around Pepper's waist. "JARVIS, call for catering will you?"

"_Already done Sir._" JARIVS replied.

"Good, now where's everyone else?" Tony asked.

"Charles, Scott, and Hank are watching the majority of the students in your back yard." Ororo said. "Though I'm not sure where Logan is, but he's probably with Rouge."

"I think I saw them on the roof." Kitty said as she took off her apron and flung it across the room somehow actually hooking it on the hook on the far wall; Tony and Pepper both suspected it was with a bit of help from Jean, who was floating the breakfast foods back into the fridge and cabinets.

After cleaning up the kitchen a bit, they all headed to the back porch. Her, Jean, Ororo, and Tony all walked onto the patio and Kitty ran off to play with her friends. Pepper was a bit shocked at the amount of children there were in their back yard. She hadn't gone to see everyone yet, having started chatting with Jean, Ororo, and Kitty before attempting to cook breakfast.

There were children of all ages; from 5 to 18. It wasn't just the amount of children, but what they were doing also. She knew they were all mutants, after talking with Jean and Ororo about their school, she knew everyone in the mansion, besides her, was a mutant. They had even explained some of the powers they had, but actually seeing them was astounding and... beautiful.

Pepper looked around the back yard, there were several children playing in the pool off to the far end. She was surprised to see half of it frozen over with two kids skating on it. Though, from what she could see, they were wearing regular shoes, with ice blades frozen to them. There was a young girl who had light blue skin and what appeared to be gills on her neck: she had webbed hands and feet, using them to swim around the others in some unfair game of water tag as they chased after her.

Across the vast lawn there were some target set up and Scott was leading a small group of children in aiming at the targets. Various things and elements were being thrown towards the targets: Fire, rocks, laser beams, and what appeared to be porcupine quills from one young boy. Several others were using their powers to control other things, such as water and wind or vines to grab rocks and toss them at the targets.

There were several small groups of 5-7 students spread out around the yard, conversing, or reading, or playing with their powers. Pepper watched as a young boy, probably no older than 11, as he created 5 copies of himself to play a small game of football with some others. It was him Vs. 6 other children his age.

It was a truly brilliant sight. All these children with such amazing gifts, able to have so much fun, and all because of Tony too. A tear made it down her cheek, but Tony kissed it away. Tony held her closer and laid his head on hers as they watched the children play. It brought both of them warmth in their hearts. They moved to sit next to Charles as Jean went to go help Scott with the target practice.

They all, Ororo, Hank, Charles, Tony, and Pepper, sat around on the deck as they watched over the children. Then suddenly Pepper was struck with a thought and she turned to Tony.

"Hey Tony?" She asked.

"Yeah Pep?" Tony answered, not taking his eyes off the children.

"Can you show me your powers?" She asked curiously.

This time Tony did take his eyes off the children and looked at Pepper with a smile.

"Sure why not." Tony said, raising his arm to levitate something to show Pepper.

"Anthony?" Charles' voice interrupted him. "How about we have a contest?"

Tony looked confused for a second before a spark, a literal spark Pepper noted, of recognition shone in his eyes.

"You don't mean?" Tony trailed off with a small smile, sitting up a bit and sounding hopeful.

"Oh, but I do." Charles said with a smile.

Tony's smile turned mischievous and Pepper almost groaned. Those smiles usually meant that Tony had played a prank, or had created something extremely stupid and completely useless. But he always demanded to show whatever it was to her, and half of the time, the inventions didn't work properly and something usually ended up being on fire... Good thing Dummy was in love with the fire extinguisher. But Pepper held the groan back, she had the feeling Charles would risk any of the children's lives just to let Tony show off his powers a little.

Tony sprung to his feet energetically and he jogged over to the Jean and Scott.

"What did you mean by contest?" Pepper asked Charles, a little worried about Tony's enthusiasm.

"It's nothing to worry about Miss Potts, just a little game they used to all play when they were younger." Charles informed her. "Nothing too dangerous, I assure you. Just a little battle-type elimination tournament."

"A battle tournament?" Pepper squeaked. _How can that not be dangerous?_ She thought, but trusted Charles': He seemed the trustworthy type.

"It is nothing to worry about Pepper." Ororo assured her as she and Hank got up. "It's really just a way we all test our powers every now and then, we have the students do it too from time to time."

"Alright, if you insist." Pepper said, sounding a bit wary still.

"Don't worry," Hank said. "The Professor will stop it if we get out of hand."

Pepper did feel a bit more assured that someone would stop it if it started to got out of hand, because everyone who knew Tony, even only a little bit, knew the man loved to keep going until it got of hand. He loved to set a goal and surpass it... heck he'd make a goal and then demolish it completely. Iron Man and the Arc Reactor were proof enough of that.

Pepper nodded to Hank as he and Ororo headed over to the other 3 by the targets. After the group talked a bit Jean flew(and wow, she can fly!) up to the roof, where Pepper assumed she was telling Logan. In the meantime, Tony and the others walked to the middle of the yard.

"YO EVERYONE!" Tony screamed loudly, causing everyone to halt in their activities; the small boy with the clones must have lost concentration, because all of his copies snapped back to him like a rubber band, causing him to fall on his butt. Everyone looked at the adults in the middle of the yard curiously.

"Battle contest between the adults!" Tony yelled, causing the children clap and yell excitedly.

Pepper though it was obvious this type of thing didn't happen often... at least not with the adults. Ororo had said they had the children do it sometimes, so maybe it was just that they wanted to see their teachers beat each other up.

"That is quite the deduction Miss Potts." Charles said as he rolled up beside where she sat. "And quite a correct one at that."

Pepper started at the sudden voice before realizing it was Charles. Her eyes widened, wondering if she had said all that out loud, but quickly remembered what Tony had said about Charles being a telepath.

"It is very rare that we allow the students to see the teachers use their powers to the fullest." Charles explained. "We do not wish for them to make the teachers level their goals. We want them to create their own goals to reach and surpass."

"I see." Pepper said with a nod. "So this is a treat for them."

"Correct." Charles nodded. "They are also unaware of Anthony's powers, so they'll be learning those as well. They are most excited to see this."

As Charles said this the students all gathered into two groups, one on the other side of the lawn in a line along the boundary of the grass, and the other sitting on the steps and chairs on the patio. Every last one of them looked excited.

Logan and Jean joined the group a minute later, and a teenager, probably 16 or 17, joined Charles and Pepper at the table on the patio. She had long dark brown hair with a light streak in the front. It was shockingly white. The same shocking white color of Storms hair.

"You really letting them do this Prof.?" She asked, and pepper noticed her voice was soft but powerful, and she kept her eyes on Logan as she spoke.

"I believe it will be good for them to let out some energy." Charles said.

"Alright, but when Logan and Scott knock each other out, don't expect me to help calm Logan." She said with a small mischievous smile: obviously she had had to do that in the past.

"No worries my dear." Charles reassured her.

Pepper looked back to the small groups of adults and saw them playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. She almost laughed it was so childish. The 6 adults split up into groups of twos. Two of the groups walked to the sidelines to stand in front of the patio as the other two chatted in the middle of the yard for a second before walking away from each other to give themselves more space. Pepper stood up and walked to the balcony of the patio and leaned against it. She watched as the two people out in the yard turned around to face each other.

"Alright get ready, on the count of 3, begin, and remember, you are only trying to subdue your opponent not hurt them." Charles said loudly. "1, 2, 3, BEGIN!"

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**E/N~ So What'd You Think? Please Tell Me In A Review! Seriously, Reviews Are Like My Very Own Arc Reactor Keeping Me Alive & My Heart Beating! XD **

**So Go Check Out My New Poll, It's For Who's Going To Fight Whom. Pick Your 2 favorite Choices, & The Winning Pair Will Be Fighting In The Next Chapter(The First Round) & The Runners Up Will Fight In The Second Round! XD **

**Thanx For Reading! X3 **


	17. Scott Vs Logan

**A/N~ So Here's The First Fight! I Hope You Guys Like It. I Just Want To Say Thanx For All The Votes On The Poll, & I'm Sorry To All Those Who Didn't Get To Vote. I Know I Got Some Reviews Saying They Were Going To Vote AFTER I Already Took The Poll Down. So Sorry About That. **

**Oh & I Just Wanted To Mention Something That Was Awesome To Me. I FINALLY Got My Brother To Watch ALL Of The Marvel Movies(Except _Iron Man 3_, That's Next). He'd Seen _Iron Man 1 & 2_(& Of Course _X-Men_, But I'm Not Talking About Them), But That's Where It Stopped. He Watched _Captain America_ & _Thor_ On Netflix, Then He Watched My _Avengers_ DVD. He LOVED IT! I Had told him He Would, But He Didn't Believe Me. So I Proved Him. Just Had To Tell You All. ;P **

**Disclaimer~ Not Mine! T-T**

**Warning~ There's Fighting... So Description Of Wounds & What Not, Bad Language(Bad Logan, Bad), &... I Can't Really Think Of Anything Else. ENJOY! X3 **

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**_Ch.17_**

**_Scott Vs. Logan_**

**_~2,502~_**

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_Pepper stood up and walked to the balcony of the patio and leaned against it. She watched as the two people out in the yard turned around to face each other. _

"_Alright get ready, on the count of 3, begin, and remember, you are only trying to subdue your opponent not hurt them." Charles said loudly. "1, 2, 3, BEGIN!"_

Everything was quiet. They knew their opponents very well, having fought many times since they had met. They had something of a rivalry going on. They circled each other, waiting for an opening or for their enemy to attack first. As always the hot-headed one leaped at the other, claws out and a snarl on his lips.

"Knew it." Tony said, turning to Jean who stood beside him. "Logan always attacks first, you'd think he'd learn not to rush in."

"Yeah, but he's a impulsive, kinda like you." Jean joked.

"I'm not nearly as bad as him." Tony said petulantly.

"I don't know Tony, you're pretty rash." Pepper said from above him.

Tony looked up and saw Pepper leaning over the railing to the patio. She was smirking as she looked down on him.

"Not you too Pep." Tony whined, but the smile one his lips let her know he didn't really mind. "I think things though and pick the best course of action, the chance with the highest probability of succeeding. I am not rash."

"Whatever you say Tony." Pepper chuckled and looked back to the fight.

Scott had easily dodged Logan's lunge and had knocked the larger man to the ground with a simple trip. Logan growled as he got up and lunged again. He missed again, but dodged the kick Scott sent his way, grabbing the younger mans ankle and trapping him.

"I got you 4-eyes." Logan taunted with a smirk.

"So you do." Scott said calmly but the smirk on his face told Logan he had something planned.

Scott jumped up kicked Logan in the side of his right knee with his other foot, making said knee collapse and Logan let go of his other ankle in order to catch himself. Scott caught himself and bounced back up to his feet. Now free, Scott spun and landed a solid kick to Logan's diaphragm, sending him to the ground to catch his breath.

Logan quickly recovered and lunged at Scott, this time catching the man's thigh with his metal claws, it wasn't deep, but it would stop the kicks for now. Scott dived and rolled away, ending kneeling on one knee. He kept one eye on Logan as he assessed the damage done to his leg. It wasn't bad so he stood up, ignoring the pain.

They returned to circling each other; Scott limping slightly and panting, Logan smirking.

"Had enough Summers?" Logan jeered. "Ready to call it quite already?"

"In your dreams big guy." Scott shot back.

"Have it you're way." Logan said before running at Scott.

However this time Scott didn't try to dodge. He braced himself and pulled down his glasses, shooting his lasers at Logan who stopped in his sprint to dodge right, missing the blast by an inch.

On the sidelines Pepper gasped as she saw the the red beam burst out of Scott's eyes. _Laser vision indeed_ she thought.

"That's amazing." She whispered in awe.

"Eh, it okay. Hurts like a bitch though." Tony said, absentmindedly rubbing his side.

Pepper noticed the movement and remembered that Tony had a scar there, she had wondered where it came from, but figured it was from Afghanistan but perhaps she had been wrong.

"How does it work?" She asked instead when she noticed that Scott kept his glasses in his hands the entire time. "The lasers? Can he turn them off? Or are those special glasses that suppress his powers."

"He can't turn it off, but the glasses aren't special. He just needs a reflective surface to bounce the beams off of. Most glasses will work, not prescription though." Tony told her, watching as Logan dodged Scotts blasts and unable to get closer to the man. "It sucks for him because that means he has to wear glasses everywhere he goes. Even at night."

"What about contacts?" Pepper asked. "Couldn't you make hims some that are reflective."

Tony paused as he thought about it. It had never crossed his mind to make contacts. It would be tricky, they would have to be reflective but not limit his vision and they would have to be made to sleep in too. Permanent contacts? No, he needed his powers to fight. Maybe Something with nano-bots? He could program them to be reflective only when Scott wanted and then he could turn it off when he wanted to fight. It was difficult, but not impossible, and Tony loved a challenge. Though how Scott would put them in would be another thing all together.

Tony turned around ant climbed up the railing and kissed Pepper.

"You're a genius Pep." Tony smiled. "I never thought of that."

"Mmm, glad to be of help." Pepper smiled, the gasped as she turned back to the fight, Tony turned around as well and winced at what he saw.

Scott kept blasting, aiming for Logan's legs and the ground, trying to trip him up. Logan was quick on his feet and easily dodged the blasts. However, he wasn't quick enough when Scott suddenly switched his tactic and aimed for Logan's midsection. Logan was grazed on the side, burning a hole in his shirt and singing the skin underneath, sending him to the ground.

"Oh my gosh!" Pepper exclaimed, seeing the nasty burn from her vantage point.

"Don't worry Pepper," Tony reassured her. "He's got the whole super healing thing going on remember."

"Yeah, but that has to hurt doesn't it?" Pepper asked wincing.

"Probably, but Logan's tougher than nails..." Tony paused for a second. "Literally. He's got a metal skeleton."

Pepper didn't really know what to say to that, so she just nodded and turned back to the fight.

Logan quickly rolled out of the way as Scott sent another blast at him. Logan was forced to practically roll across the yard as Scott kept blasting at him. It was quite funny looking and there was several laughs from the sidelines. Even Pepper giggled a little at the comical view.

By the time Logan was able to get up, he was all the way on the other side of the yard, his side was all healed. It would have been sooner, but stupid Scott and his stupid lasers really did a number on Logan and it delayed his healing a bit. Hearing the giggles, chuckles, and full blown laughs(Tony and Rogue), Logan was furious. Ignoring the danger of a straight out attack, Logan sprinted at Scott full speed.

Scott was surprised by the attack, thinking Logan would have learned better, giving Logan a few extra seconds to get close enough to slash at him with his claws. Scott kept trying to dodge, getting nicked here and there. As he came close to having his face sliced open(It's a scratch, stop being a wuss 4-eyes) Scott was close to being fed up with with fight. It was supposed to be a test of strength in their abilities, so Scott was going to test his abilities to their fullest.

Scott dodged another swipe of Logan's metal claws and jumped back for better aim and let it rip. He sent one of his strongest blasts at Logan. The man dodged. There was a large crater right where Logan had been, showing that it was a much more powerful blast than the last few. Logan looked from the crater to Scott and smirked.

"Finally bringing out the big guns are we?" Logan mocked. "Thought you were going to keep treating me this like a joke."

"Yeah well, I'm getting a bit tired of you running away." Scott shot back, sending another powerful blast at Logan.

Logan dodged again; however, this time Logan found himself up against the ledge that separated the lawn from the cliff. There was a tree to his left and very few places for him to go. Logan stared straight into Scotts eyes and waited. They stood in a stand off for nearly an entire minute, waiting for the other to make a move.

Scott half-expected Logan to give in, but wasn't holding his breath, while Logan was indeed holding his breath, waiting for Scott to either shoot him or the ground at his feet. Logan wasn't planning to give up any time in the near future. He'd sooner fall from the cliff, climb back up, and get knocked back down again before throwing in the towel.

"You just gonna stand there and admire my pretty face?" Logan taunted. "Or are you gonna fire?"

"I was waiting for you to give up, but it doesn't look like that'd going to happen any time soon." Scott said, sounding slightly disappointed. "So I guess I'll just do this."

As he finished his sentence, Scott let off a powerful blast, kitting Logan square in the chest, knocking him back against the concrete wall. The blast was so powerful, that the impact of Logan's hard body against the wall cracked it. Scott kept the blast up until he heard the wall behind Logan cracking and begin to crumble. He let up and was amazed to see Logan land on his feet.

Logan wobbled only slightly as his feet hit the ground. After a second he fell to one knee.

"You though Logan?" Scott asked smugly.

"N-not even c-close dick head." Logan panted, grabbing a large chunk of concrete, that had fallen from the wall, from behind him as he stood up.

"You know, I thought you had more brain cells than that." Scott insulted. "Seems I was wrong. Does that single cell ever get lonely up there? Or is it too stupid to even know that it's alone?"

Logan threw the chunk of concrete straight at Scott's head. The surprise attack caught Scott off guard, but he was quick enough to shoot it out of the air before it hit him. He wasn't quick enough; however, to stop Logan from slicing up his side in a sneak attack.

"Damn!" Scott yelled as his instincts kicked in and shot another blast right at Logan's chest, sending him flying back.

Logan's body hit the same spot as before. This time, though, the weakened concrete wasn't able to hold up against the impact and broke, sending Logan falling down the cliff.

"No." Pepper breathes in horror, until she notices everyone else cheering and clapping, seemingly not caring that Logan had just fallen from a 500 foot cliff to his death.

"Don't worry Pep, Jean's got it." Tony said, sensing her fright.

Pepper looked from Tony back to the hole in the wall. After a few seconds Logan flew up though the hole and back onto land: safe and sound. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Scott was laying on the ground clutching his side. He was able to sit up by the time the other's made their way to him.

"You okay Scott?" Jean asked, kneeling next to the downed man and inspecting his side. "That looks pretty bad."

"Nothing I can't handle." Scott hissed, putting up a false bravado.

"Oh cut the macho act laser-eyes." Tony said, "Lets get that closed before you bleed out on my lawn."

Tony kneeled next to jean, placing his hand on Scott's injured side he closed his eyes. Pepper had followed right behind Tony, worried about his friend. She was surprised when Tony instantly went to help, by then remembered; _family._

Tony's hand was pressed firmly against Scott's side. Scott winced when Tony pushed a bit too hard, and Tony mumbled an apology, not opening his eyes. Using his electrokinesis, Tony absorbed some energy from the air and the sun shining down on them and used it to partially heal Scott's side. He closed the wound and stood up.

"Th-that's the best I can do at the moment." Tony side slightly winded. "You should sit out the next round though, you don't want to reopen that."

"Does that mean I win by default?" Logan asked, his chest having already healed, though he now stood shirtless next to Rogue and Hank.

"Sorry Logan, but just because Scott can't continue doesn't mean you win." Ororo said. "He just wont be fighting the winner of the next round."

"Speaking of which, who's fighting next?" Rogue asked from her spot next to Logan.

"That would be me and... who was I fighting again?"

"That would be me."

Tony turned to look at Jean as she helped Scott stand, he was in full on pout mode.

"Right right, fighting you. Telekinesis Vs. Telekinesis." Tony smirked. "And Electrokinesis Vs. Telepathy."

"I think I'll have the advantage, like always." Jean smirked.

"Oh I think you'll be surprised with what I've learned to do." Tony smirked right back.

"Well can it wait for me to get off the battle ground first?" Scott said from Jean's side, sounding amused.

"Yeah, lets get you wrapped up before the next round." Jean said.

Scott was carried from the yard up to the patio, where Kitty stood with some bandages and other first aid gear. Scott's side was wrapped, as was his leg, and band-aids were put on his scratches and smaller cuts. Tony was already on the lawn doing little stretches with Pepper standing next to him, looking anxious for him.

"Tony, please be careful and don't get too hurt." Pepper said, looking worried for her boyfriend, who didn't look worried at all.

"Don''t worry Pep, I got this." Tony said as he stretched his arms and back, leaning down to touch his toes.

"How do you know?" Pepper asked, not believing him.

"We've faced each other before." Tony said coming up to look at her with a smirk. "We were about even last time we fought, but I've got a secret weapon this time."

"And what would that be?" Pepper asked skeptically. "She's got telepathy, she can read your mind, she'll know your next move before you do."

"That's the secret." Tony said mischievously. "I've got a hypothetical way of blocking her."

Pepper wasn't sure if she understood him correctly. A way to stop a telepath? She was pretty new to the world of mutants, but she didn't think there was a way, except maybe being a telepath yourself. But if Tony said he had a way, he had a way, hypothetical or not.

"Alright, if you say so." Pepper said warily. "Just... be safe, and try not to get hurt, you just healed from New York, we don't need you hurt again."

"Fine, I'll try not to get too hurt." Tony sighed theatrically. "Now come here and give me some luck."

Tony pulled Pepper into a hug, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her deeply. There were a few fake gag sounds from the sidelines. _Teenagers._ Pepper thought, but ignored them. When Tony pulled away she noticed Jean approaching and gave Tony a peck on the cheek before walking back towards the patio.

"Please don't hurt him too bad." Pepper whispered as she passed Jean, who just smiled and nodded.

"I'll try."

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**E/N~ So What'd You Think? Lol I Think I've Started Off EVERY SINGLE E/N With That Sentence. ;P **

**But Seriously, What'd You Think? I Love Reviews, & Constructive Criticism. I've Only Ever Gotten One Flame(Not On This Story Though) Though, If There's Something You Don't Like Just Tell Me & I Can See If It's Something I Can Change Or If It's Super Important & Will Affect Future Chapters. You Never Know, A Little Quirk Could Mean A Lot(Not Saying Any DO Though.) **

**Next Up Is Tony Vs. Jean, So If Anyone Has Any Ideas About The Fight Just Tell Me In A Review! XP **

**ALSO, There's Another Poll Up. I've Told Some Of You In My Responses To Your Reviews, But So Far It's Only Gotten 1 Vote. It's Important & Will Be Coming Up In A Few Chapter(Somewhere In The Next 6-7), It's About Loki. So Please Go & Vote! & Thanx For Reading! X3 **


	18. Tony Vs Jean

**A/N~ So Here's The Apparently Most Anticipated Battle Yet. Who Knew? *Shrugs* Well Technically This IS Late, So Sorry For That. If You Can Believe It, I Was Actually So Caught Up In Typing That I Actually Forgot To Post Before Midnight. ;P Anyway, Hope You Like! XD **

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**Warning~ This Is A Fight, So Yeah, Fighting & Stuff. **

**Disclaimer~ None Of The Avengers Or X-Men Are Mine, Nothing Recognizable Is Mine. **

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**_Ch.18_**

**_Tony Vs. Jean_**

**_~3,110~_**

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"_Fine, I'll try not to get too hurt." Tony sighed theatrically. "Now come here and give me some luck." _

_Tony pulled Pepper into a hug, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her deeply. There were a few fake gag sounds from the sidelines. Teenagers. Pepper thought, but ignored them. When Tony pulled away she noticed Jean approaching and gave Tony a peck on the cheek before walking back towards the patio. _

"_Please don't hurt him too bad." Pepper whispered as she passed Jean, who just smiled and nodded. _

"_I'll try."_

By the time Pepper made it back to the Patio, Jean had made it to Tony. They shook hands and walked to their respective ends of the yard. Pepper was still worried, despite Tony's confidence in his supposed secret weapon.

"He'll be fine Pepper." Ororo said from beside her. "Those two have fought numerous time in the past and neither have ever come away with serious injuries. At the most a few electrical burns and some bruises."

"Right." Pepper said, feeling a bit better knowing from a second source that they had fought before and come out of it relatively unharmed.

"Okay, get ready you two. Round two is about to begin. On the count of 3, begin." Charles announced. "1, 2, 3, BEGIN!"

As soon as the words left Charles' mouth the air became tense and filled with an electrical current. Tony and Jean didn't move a muscle as they studied each other. Suddenly Jean flinched and grabbed her head, her eyes went wide the next second and she stared at Tony in shock. Tony simply smirked and took advantage of Jean's distracted mind and used his telekinesis to lift a lawn chair and throw it at Jean from behind, not even moving a muscle to do so.

As soon as the battle began, Jean had attempted to read Tony's mind. Trying to hear his battle plan, but when she went to probe his mind, she was stopped by what she could only describe as an electrical fence surrounding his thoughts. And as soon as she touched it with hers, it felt like she had gotten shocked by a live wire. It hurt quite a bit, but she didn't touch it long enough to cause any damage. She was too distracted by what had happened that she barely noted the smirk on his lips, let alone the battle that was supposed to be happening.

Luckily for Jean though, she could still read everyone else minds and she heard the mental gasps and thoughts about the lawn chair coming at her from behind. She dived out of the way in the last second and used her own telekinesis to thrust the chair at Tony, who easily stopped it, like she had thought he would.

Luckily for her there were many objects in the back yard that could be used as weapons. She brushed off the shock of the... well shock to her mind and focused on _Tony_ instead of Tony's mind. Tony was an expert when it came to his telekinesis, even more than she was. She still needed to used her body to help her keep control of certain things, move her body as if the object was an extension of herself. Tony on the other hand didn't. He could lift a car without looking at it or, as he did with the chair, lift it and hurl it at her with no tell that he was doing it. She had even seen Tony move multiple objects in varying movements while holding a conversation. Tony was what one would call a master of telekinesis.

Pushing away her thoughts on Tony's ability, Jean reached behind her with her hand, mentally probing for something to use against Tony. She found a garden hose and thought of a perfect plan. She had the hose slither along the outer line of the yard, out of site, until it she could see it behind Tony. Then probing again for something to throw, she found the football the children had been playing with before the battles and she hurled it at Tony's head in a perfect spiral. Tony quickly dodged it, though he could have snatched it out of the air and thrown it back at her.

This was what Jean had been hoping for. Tony had taken a few steps to his left, right in front of where she had placed the hose. She couldn't keep the smug smile off her face.

Tony was having fun. He had felt the pressure on his mind that signified a telepath trying to enter his mind, and he quickly threw up his secret weapon. He used his electrokinesis to take in energy and he transferred it his mind. He had learnt over the years that Telepathy was simply throwing your mind at another's at the right wavelength and with enough force to enter. And then move around and hear, see, feel, _experience_, what the other person has.

In all honesty, it was very similar to hacking Tony found out. Each person has a specific wavelength: twins for example had very similar wavelengths, therefore they could sometimes tell what the other twin was thinking or what they were going to do or say next. And while most people can't tell what others are thinking, telepaths can manipulate their own wavelengths and easily sync theirs with another persons. Disrupting the wavelengths was the key to blocking out a telepath. It was how Frost could keep Charles and Jean out: scrambling her wavelength to keep them from syncing up, and it was how Magneto's and Juggernaut's helmets worked: they blocked the telepath's wavelengths from reaching their own.

Tony had found a way to no quite block out or stop their wavelengths, but rather a way to deter them from reaching his wavelength. He used his electrokinesis to create a barrier around his mind, keeping his wavelength securely behind a wall of electricity. And while it was not 100% effective, it would stop anyone from getting to his thoughts, unless the pryer was determined, then they would more than likely become severely hurt or even possibly fall unconscience.

Tony hadn't been sure if it would work pre-battle, but he was glad it had. He felt the slight shock and then saw the flinch on Jeans face and he may have felt a bit bad for hurting her, but the feeling was drowned out by the feeling of excitement that his hypothesis had worked. The shocked that appeared on Jeans face only a second after the flinch made him feel a bit better, that he hadn't hurt her too much. But it also provided a perfect opportunity to attack.

Tony had gladly used the opportunity of surprise and mentally grabbed up the lawn chair that was several yards behind her and brought it forward. Jean had easily dodged, and used her own powers to keep it going towards him, which he easily stopped.

He watched as Jean lifted her arm behind her and felt for something to use against him. Her arm was up for a few seconds and he saw her fingers twitch, he knew she had found something, but he didn't see anything flying in the air, so she had a plan. Tony kept up his guard and waited patiently for her to make her move. He was a bit surprised that she hadn't asked him about him stopping her telepathy, but this was a fight, so she was probably going to ask later.

Jean's hand stayed up for a bit longer and then he saw her fingers twitch again and suddenly a football was being beamed toward his head. He could have easily stopped it, or even caught it with his hand, but being Tony Stark, he simply dodged to the side. He watched her with a smug expression, though he frowned when Jean had a smug smile of her own.

Suddenly, Tony felt something curl around and up his leg. He looked down in shock to find a hose quickly winding it's way up his leg. In a matter a a few seconds Tony was completely wrapped up in the hose and couldn't move. Tony struggled for a second, then went still. He stared at Jean as she stood and walked closer.

"You don't _really_ think this is going to keep me immobile for long do you?" Tony asked, one eyebrow raised in question.

"Not for long, but long enough for a ten count." Jean smiled.

"Right the ten count: if an opponent doesn't move for more than ten seconds the other win by default." Tony repeated with a scoff. "Yeah, that's not going to work."

Jean was forced to take a quick step back as the hose was easily shredded. And how she thought that was going to keep him still for ten seconds was a mystery to Tony. The now shredded hose was simply floating in the air around Tony, who stretched his arms.

"Now, lets get back to battle. I want to test my electrokinesis." Tony said, bringing his hand up to a few of the shreds of hose, transferring some energy.

Then Tony put his hands in his pockets, seemingly board. As he did this, the shreds of hose flew with lightening fast speeds towards Jean. She threw up a shield, but the shreds flew right through it.

She grunted as they slashed at her, like razors. Then suddenly, one of the energy charged shreds cut her arm, leaving a electric sting behind, causing her to scream out in pain and fall to one knee.

"What the hell?" She said, grabbing her arm that was still in quite a deal of pain. "What was that?"

"An electric probe: I fused some energy into a few of the pieces of hose. I thought that if I could power up an object I could cause more damage or deter my enemy from attacking or even scare them away." Tony said, sounding a little apologetic. "Sorry to use you as a ginny pig Jean."

"It's alright, battle is battle." Jean said. "No holding back."

And with that Jean launched several different objects at Tony from every direction. There was a beach ball, another lawn chair, a tree branch, and some rubble from the broken wall. Tony easily stopped everything, but in the second or two it took, he was distracted and lost sight of Jean as she ducked into some bushes.

Tony dropped everything to the ground around his feet, slowly turning around in a circle trying to spot his enemy.

"Oh Je~an." Tony called out as if he was calling her in for lunch. "Come out come out wherever you a~re."

Tony felt the pressure on his mind again, and he blocked it out. A second later he heard rustling in the bushes to his right, close to the patio. Tony grabbed the bush and yanked it up and out of the ground. At the same time he flung the rubble from the wall at the same spot, only for it to hit the rock wall behind it, revealing no Jean. _A trick!_

Tony realizing what had just happened, quickly spun around and came face to face with a large boulder from the destroyed wall. He wasn't quick enough to dodge and it hit him square in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sent him back a few steps. As he caught his breath Tony tried to look around and see where Jean could be. The problem with fighting someone with telekinesis was that once they were hidden, you couldn't find them because when they threw something, it didn't give away their location. For all Tony knew Jean could have been behind the bush next to the one he just destroyed or all the way across the lawn in one of the trees. He couldn't tell where she was, but she knew exactly where he was. Even if he hid she would still be able to find him, because even though she could read his mind, she could still try and be pushed away, that meant she could feel his mind and locate him, or at least his general area.

Then suddenly Tony got a brilliant idea. He walked into the middle of the lawn and sat down, indian style. He saw out of the corner of his eye that everyone on the patio was giving him a weird look, either confusion or curiosity. Tony took a deep breath, he wasn't sure if this would work, he wasn't a mast with his electrokinesis, but he was definitely better than when he was a child, or even when he left the school.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his hands together slowly, the started to pick up speed, creating energy though the friction. He did this for nearly thirty whole seconds, until small sparks began to erupt from his hands. It was obvious that Jean was curious as to what he was doing, simply by the fact that she hand't attacked yet. Then, without preamble, Tony slammed one of his hands down on the ground. Everyone saw the minute electrical waves race though the ground in every direction, very similar to a ripple in water.

Tony kept his hand on the ground, waiting for the wave of energy to return to him, like a sonar blast. It took about ten seconds before Tony's eyes snapped open and he quickly stood, turning his whole body to the far side of the yard. He squinted his eyes and then suddenly a large cheshire grin appeared on his face. A loud shriek sounded from where Tony was looking and Jean was abruptly yanked into the air. Tony held her upside down as he floated her closer.

"Found you little mouse." Tony smirked. "And this cat's done playing."

Jean was now close enough for Tony to touch, and he brought up his hand as she tried to struggle to free herself. A second after Tony's hand touched her arm, Jean sagged; her energy sucked from her and she was now exhausted. Tony slowly set her down so she was on her knees. She could barely hold herself up.

"I'd say this is the time where you surrender." Tony said.

"I-I can b-barely... s-sit up s-strait." Jean panted as she fell back on her butt. "I-I know w-when I've l-lost... I g-give."

"Good. I didn't really want to hurt you." Tony said as he kneeled. "Here, let me help you up."

Tony stood and used his telekinesis to help himself lift Jean up, and carried her over to the patio where everyone was staring at him.

"What?" Tony asked, setting Jean down on a chair for her to rest.

"What was that?" Logan asked, pointing, with his morning beer, to the yard where the two had just been fighting.

"Uh... a fight?" Tony answered confused. "Which I won, if that's what you're asking."

"No that, the thing you did with your hands when you sat on the ground." Scott said. "And what was up with you Jean, you're usually better than that. Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine." She answered still out of breath. "I j-just couldn't read T-Tony's mind. Some t-type of forcef-field or something."

"A forcefield?" Charles asked, curious.

A second later Tony felt the pressure against his mind again, stronger than when Jean had done it in battle. Tony put up his barrier, trying to make it a habit, there were lots of mutants with telepathy that weren't on their side. Tony and the others watched Charles flinched back, bringing his hand up to his head to massage his temple.

"Forcefield indeed." Charles smiled. "That's an interesting trick, when did you come up with it?"

"A few months ago, but I just perfected it a week or so ago." Tony replied with a shrug. "I wasn't sure it'd work, but now that I know it does, I can work on expanding it so I can shield other people's minds too."

"That would be most amazing." Charles said. "How did you figure out such a thing?"

"Here, just read my mind, It'll take too long to explain everything." Tony sighed, and as soon as he let his barrier drop, he felt Charles in his head, then Jean. "For those who can't read minds, here's a shortened version. I figured out the mechanics of how telepaths read minds, then I devised a way to use my electrokinesis to create a barrier in my mind to prevent telepaths from entering and reaching my thoughts."

"Remarkable." Charles whispered, very impressed with his old student. "I wish you luck on expanding it."

"Thank you." Tony said, then his stomach rumbled.

As soon as Tony's stomach said it was time to eat, he noticed that there was food everywhere. Tony frowned and wondered when it had come.

"If you're wondering about the food, the catering came during your battle." Pepper said, noticing Tony eyeballing a plate of bagels and cream cheese. "Most of us ate while you two fought."

"Aww, phooey, you did save us some right?" Tony asked as his stomach rumbled again. "Because I'm pretty sure I paid for all of this food, so if I don't get even half a ba-"

Tony was cut off as Pepper shoved half a toasted bagel into Tony's mouth. He gratefully shut up and ate his food. Pepper made him a small plate of food while Ororo and Hank walked out to the middle of the yard.

Hank became even more Bruce like to Pepper, as he pulled off his glasses and fiddled with them nervously. In the short time Pepper had met Bruce, she had seen him do it nearly a dozen times when he was nervous... which she also noted, was a lot.

Pepper also noted that Ororo was also quite like Thor in certain ways. She held a presence when she in a room, and though she seemed intimidating, she was very sweet and kind. And beside their mutual gift with controlling weather, they had very bold voices, and though hers wasn't as loud as Thor's, both carried far on the winds, as if talking on stage in a theater or a ruler to their subjects. So when Ororo started talking, everyone heard what she was saying.

"Are you prepared for battle Hank?" Ororo asked, to which Hank just nodded. "Are you not going to remove your wrist bands?"

"Oh, right. sorry." Hank said and glanced over to the patio where everyone sat.

Pepper could have sworn that he looked straight at her. _Maybe he's nervous about me seeing him_. Pepper thought, so she smiled at him. He gave a small smile back, looking a bit relieved and he slipped off the wrist bands. Immediately his image flickered out and appeared in it's place was a large blue fluffy man.

"So adorable!" Pepper practically squealed from her spot next to Tony, who was stuffing his face.

Everyone around her chuckle and she could have sworn that she saw some blue fur tinge red.

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**E/N~ So? So? So? What'd Ya Think? Good? Please Say It Was Good… Unless It Wasn't, If It Was Bad Then Please Tell Me. I Want To Know How I Did. So Please Review? **

**Also, I Still Have That Poll Up. So Please Go Vote If You Haven't Already. X3 **

**Oh & Check This Out! I Was Going Over Some Of My Stories & Stuff, Just Checking Out The Info On Them. & This Story Has 123 Reviews, 85 Favorites, 124 Followers(One Of You didn't Review! Lol.), Is In 2 Communities **_**& Has A Whopping 13,967 VIEWS!**_** Can You Believe That? That's Crazy! Thank You All So Much! When I Saw That My Eyes Nearly Burst Out Of My Head! It Made Me Feel So Happy! X3 **

**Now, Only If I Got Paid For This. Could You Imagine If We Authors Got A Dime For Each View? I'd Have Nearly $1,400! Or If We Even Got Only A Nickel For Each View? I'd Have Like Almost $700! CRAZY! But Sadly No. T-T **

**Oh Well. Thanx For Reading! X3 **


	19. Two Battles In One! H Vs O & T Vs O

**A/N~ So Here's The Next Chapter. I Hope Everyone Likes It. Also I Don't Think I've Thanked Everyone So Much For Reviewing This Story & Supporting Me. This Is Officially My Longest Story. With 19 Chapters, I've Just Passed My Psych Story That's Been Put On Hiatus. So Thanx Everyone, It Means A Lot To Me. X3**

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**Disclaimer~ Nope, Nothing Is Mine. If There Was ANY Possible Way For The Avengers To Be Mine, They Would Have Already Been Mine By Now. T-T **

**Warning~ Fighting Stuff. LOTS Of Description Of Fighting, If Anything Is Confusing, Please Tell Me. Also All Errors Are My Own, Because This Is NOT Beta'd. ;P Enjoy!**

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**_Ch.19_**

**_Two Battles In One! H Vs. O & T Vs. O_**

**_~2,707~_**

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"_Are you prepared for battle Hank?" Ororo asked, to which Hank just nodded. "Are you not going to remove your wrist bands?" _

"_Oh, right. sorry." Hank said and glanced over to the patio where everyone sat. _

_Pepper could have sworn that he looked straight at her. Maybe he's nervous about me seeing him. Pepper thought, so she smiled at him. He gave a small smile back, looking a bit relieved and he slipped off the wrist bands. Immediately his image flickered out and appeared in it's place was a large blue fluffy man. _

"_So adorable!" Pepper practically squealed from her spot next to Tony, who was stuffing his face. _

_Everyone around her chuckle and she could have sworn that she saw some blue fur tinge red. _

Everyone chuckled a bit more when it became obvious that Hank was blushing behind his fur, but Pepper didn't mind. The man looked absolutely adorable, like a large fluffy dog she could just hug and snuggle with. Sure he was, you know, blue, but she had seen other mutants in the yard that where blue; the girl in the pool with the gills, and she remembered one while she was trying to make breakfast that was dark blue and had a tail and pointy ears, leaving a smell of soot and a puff of red smoke behind, so she didn't think it too odd that others could be blue too. She wondered why Tony had made him the bracelets and not the others, or was it that he was the only one who wanted them?

Pepper was brought out of her thoughts as Charles yelled for them to begin their fight. She momentarily wondered if this was going to be like all the others: wait for an opening to attack. She was given her answer straight away when the wind began to pick up. It circled around Ororo and lifted her in the air, dark storm clouds appearing over head and several of the students ran under the awning, obviously familiar with her powers over the weather.

And they didn't call her Storm for nothing. It started to rain, only over the house and yard, soaking the ground that only Hank was on, making it hard to get any footing if he needed to moved quickly. Ororo was sever yards off the ground now, definitely out of jumping distance for Hank, though Pepper didn't know if being blue and fuzzy was Hank's only mutation. Tony, Jean, and Logan all had 2 powers, so why couldn't he?

Despite the soggy ground, Hank was in a battle ready position, crouched and ready to move at a moments notice.

Pepper could see Ororo's eyes turn as white as her hair as she lifted her arms wide and to the sky, and in a split second there was a flash of lightening and she sent down towards Hank. Pepper was silently worried for Hank, even if he did have another mutation, dodging lightening was near impossible, and on a muddy surface with little to no traction? It was a good bet that he was now fuzzy, blue, _and_ fried.

But then she saw Hank rolling to the side with inhuman speed. And then another bolt flashed and another, but after each flash, she could see Hank rolling away, his clothes now ruined with mud and his fur caked in it. He was definitely in need of a shower after the fight. Ororo let up on the lightening for a second and she moved her arms back and forth, like she was directing an orchestra, then the wind picked up even more.

Pepper's jaw nearly dropped when a small tornado appeared in the yard, grabbing up everything that wasn't bolted or tied down: the beach ball, the football, unoccupied lawn chairs, the shredded hose, and the rubble from the broken stone wall. All sucked up into a vortex of pain and death.

Pepper felt the tug of the wind and fearfully thought for a second that she might be pulled in, but then she felt another tug on her chair and belt. She turned around only to find nothing holding her or the chair, then she saw Tony looking at her with a mouth full of bread and he smiled. She realized it was him and his powers holding her and she smiled back in thanks before turning back to the fight.

Surprisingly, Hank wasn't being sucked into the vortex, and she noticed that Hank's feet were very large and gripped the earth almost like hands. She had guessed correctly when she had thought that Hank's mutation wasn't only some blue fur.

But then Hank did something that shocked Pepper. He crouched low to the ground before leaping into the tornado head first. Pepper would have called him crazy for doing such a dangerous thing, but the man didn't seem concerned about the flying debris. In fact, Hank seemed to be using the debris to steady himself inside the vortex, in a semi-controlled fashion. Then he started to chuck the debris at Ororo in an attempt to knock her out or, at least, to the ground.

He quickly realized that his plan wouldn't work, seeing as Ororo could easily dodge in the air or sweep the thrown objects out of the way with a quick gust of wind: throwing the beach ball was obviously him not really trying and made many of the students and adults chuckle. They were talking now, but Pepper couldn't hear them over the wind of the tornado and the rain.

"What do you plan on doing now that you've been caught in my maelstrom?" Ororo asked though the loud wind. "How will you escape?"

"I'm still working on that." Hank said hesitantly, unsure his idea to jump into the vortex to get a better shot was the right choice.

"I could easily strike you down with a shot of lightening." Ororo stated, her lip turning slight up in disgust at a thought. "Though the smell of singed fur is nauseating. If you remember from the last time."

"I remember. I had to sleep outside in the guest house until Jean found a shampoo that got rid of the scent." Hank chuckled and put his hands up in surrender. "I concede, I really don't want to go though that again."

Ororo nodded, and with a faint smile she slowed the whirlwind and gently set Hank on the ground before joining him. Pepper could see Ororo's white eyes fade back to their chocolate brown as the sky opened up and the clouds disappeared to reveal the sunny California sky.

"What was that?" Tony said, sounding like he just got ripped out. "That was barely a fight!"

"Oh shut up Tony, I think that was pretty cool." Pepper said.

"It's fine, he just doesn't want to fight Ororo." Scott said.

"Chicken." Logan teased.

"I am not a chicken!" Tony practically, shrieked. "And it's not that I don't want to fight Ororo, It's just that, _that_, wasn't a fight. Barely even a scuffle!"

"Sorry we didn't meet your criteria of combat Tony." Hank said as he walked back to the patio, a small smile on his face as he slipped back on his glasses: very Bruce-like. "I'm a scientist, not a fighter, and besides, I would rather not have to shave my body again, because we all know what's going to happen if I get singed fur again."

Tony paled and nodded in understanding.

"Ugh, okay, I guess that's fine then." Tony shuddered. "No singed fur in my house."

Hank nodded sagely and everyone chuckled, even Pepper. She had seen his reaction to singed fur before, after an accident in one of the R&D labs that was trying to synthesize a realistic feeling faux fur. The results, while horrible for Tony, were hilarious to those around him, and an extra hour of clean up for the janitor.

"So now onto Tony and Ororo." Jean said, now feeling much better.

"Though I do still need a shower, I'm not missing this." Hank said as sat on one of the stone stairs in the middle of some of the children, not even bothering to put his wrist bands on.

Most of the mud had been washed off in the rain, but there was still a great deal of it clumping in his fur, and Pepper realized it must have been hell to manage that fur. She would have JARVIS start up the hot water once they finished the fights and got into the house.

Tony stood and joined Ororo on the yard, slipping a few times on his way out there. Mud was everywhere and the grass had been kicked up in some spots and burnt in others: Tony yard guys were going to have a fit when they saw this. But Tony quickly let that train of thought take a back burner as he came face to face with Ororo.

"So, we haven't face each other in awhile, have we?" Tony said with a small smirk.

"No, we haven't." Ororo said, returning Tony's smirk.

"Well, lets get to it then." Tony bowed slowly as he took a few steps back into position. "Shall we?"

"We shall." She turned towards the patio, her voice carrying easily. "We're ready Professor."

"Right then, on 3. 1, 2..." Charles waited for a second, the anxiety and tension building. "3! Begin!"

The two instantly jumped into action; Ororo flying back into the air on the wind she conjured, and Tony actually getting in to a battle position, it seems they were getting prepared for anything that could be thrown at them. Tony was still planted firmly on the ground as Ororo flew higher into the thunder clouds she summoned.

"Try to keep it where we can see the fight Guys!" Scott yelled from his spot next to Jean. "They always do this, Ororo flies out to a distance so she's out of immediate danger and the Tony goes and catches her and they fight in the clouds that Ororo makes. We barely ever see them actually fight it o-."

Scott was cut off by a large bolt of lightening came strait down on Tony, distracting everyone. Tony easily dodge the bolt of high dense electricity, and in exchange absorbed up quite a bit of the energy given off from the bolt. Tony tried to see where Ororo was, but the dark cloud cover was too thick, so Tony lifted off the ground and flew into the clouds, looking as if he was flying his Iron Man suit, just without the suit.

"Great, see what I was saying?" Scott sighed in disappointment.

"Have not fear Scott, I have a feeling this time'll be different." Charles said with his knowing smile.

Pepper looked at Charles confused. She had been a bit surprised when Tony had lifted off the ground, not very surprised; she had become somewhat _immune_ to being surprised when it came to Tony Stark. Plus she had seen Jean flying and Tony had the same power of telekinesis, so it was a given that Tony could fly as well. But Ororo could fly too, and control the weather. Pepper was worried about what would happen if Tony was hit with one of those lightening bolts. Would he absorb it? Would it fry the Arc Reactor? Would Tony even survive? She turned back to the clouds, hoping Tony was alright.

Tony flew into the clouds. They were dark and heavy with electricity, which was both good and bad; good because he could absorb a lot of the energy, bad because he couldn't see his opponent and had no way of knowing where she, or the next attack, would be coming from, besides the build up of electricity mere seconds before the lightening struck. Tony though about the electricity sonar he had thought up in his last battle, but with all the electricity in the air, he doubted it would work, so he decided to go with plan B.

Tony began to spin, arms out and feet together, sort of like when Ororo herself rose up into the clouds using the wind and creating a centrifuge of sorts, and a large ring around himself; the clouds just an inch away from his outstretched fingers. Using his telekinesis, Tony began pulling in the water in the clouds, causing them to flow in towards him, along with the air as well, leaving nothing but a void. He was very specific with what he was grabbing; just the water and oxygen from the air: good ol' H2O and O, leaving nothing to breath or conduct her electricity with.

It was just when his halo of water and oxygen started reaching speed upwards of 50mph that he felt something pulling away from his grasp, as well as a new source of oxygen that was being sucked into his spinning ring. It was more of a tug really, because he wouldn't let it escape. Tony tried to locate where the tugging was, and when he did, he found his enemy, trying to pull her clouds from his grasp, while pulling in more air for her to breath.

Tony smirked at her fruitless effort and flew into his near solid band of dark water and oxygen. Even with his ability, it was fairly difficult to maintain a perfectly steady flight through the large donut of swirling fast wind and water. Tony flew as safely as he could towards Ororo until he was nearly right in front of her, though she couldn't see him, nor could he see her. But he could feel her, her solid body feeling very different than the small elements to his telekinesis, and much easier to grab a hold of.

Taking a hold of Ororo's black jacket and leather belt that she was wearing, Tony pulled her into the floating whirlpool. Inside, Ororo was forced to hold her breath, while Tony held the excess oxygen around himself, allowing himself to breath freely. They could just barely see each other, Tony with the advantage this time, seeing as Ororo was now on, _in_, his turf.

Struggling to breath, Ororo summons her lightening and throws it at Tony, trying to hit him with quantity rather than quality aim. Tony easily deflects them and sends them out of the enclosed space. After nearly a minute of the same treatment, Ororo began to fade, losing her oxygen and unable to get more. Tony could feel that the lightening was getting weaker and could see it diminish.

After Ororo's started to turn light purple, Tony felt it was enough. As Ororo threw one last lightening bolt at him, he redirected it away from himself and back towards her, hitting her square in the chest and sending her falling. Tony scattered the cloud donut, letting the water fall to the ground and the oxygen dispersed back into the air. He saw that Ororo wasn't slowing herself down and figured she had passed out or was having trouble catching her breath, so he took hold of her and slowly lowered her to the ground, then as he lowered too, he forced air into her lungs, helping her breath again.

He did feel bad that he nearly suffocated her, but she had tried to electrocute him more than a dozen times, so, they were pretty even. Besides, it was a battle and they weren't supposed to hold back... though he had... a _lot_. If Tony thought about it, he could say that he had never fought anyone at his full strength, not even when he fought Obidiah Stane, Ivan Vanko & Justin Hammer, or Loki & his army of disgusting looking aliens. He had never pushed himself to the limits, sure he used his powers so much that he was worn out, like he did in the invasion a few days before, but he didn't use his powers to their fullest. If Tony had really, and he means _really _tried to stop the invasion with all his mutant might, he could have destroyed each and every Chitauri soldier as soon as it had exited the portal, and he could have taken out the Leviathans quite easily, well easy compared to how hard they were to take out without his powers.

But then it would have been obvious that he was a mutant, he could see it now: 'Hey look! Iron man isn't moving in the air and pointing his arms at the portal and everything that exits is instantly blown up, I wonder why?' Yeah, people weren't that stupid. And at that time, Tony was still concerned with protecting his identity, but now that Pepper knew, Tony didn't feel all that inclined to hold back, though he still did.

Tony landed on the ground and sighed, before looking up, at the people coming toward him from the patio, with a big grin. He held out his hand and gave them all a thumbs up.

"I won!"

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**E/N~ So What'd You Think? You Got 2 Fights In This Chapter, I Didn't Really Know What To Do With Ororo & Hank's Fight, But I Think I Did Pretty Well… Right? Please Tell Me What You All Thought! & Thanx Again Everyone! I've Gotten 130 Reviews On This Story So Far & I'm So Happy About That! So Thanx Again! X3 **


	20. Ever Thought Of Children?

**A/N~ So, New Chapter. I Hope Everyone Likes This Chapter, There's So Random Stuff In It & Some Stuff That Will Come Up Later, It Starts In The Middle Of The Fight For Anyone That Might Get A Bit Confused. I Hope Everyone Likes it. ALSO, I'd Like Everyone To Read The Ending Note, There's An Announcement For Everyone. I'd Have Put It Here, But I'll Leave It For After You Read The Chapter. X3 **

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**Disclaimer~ So I Own Nothing… Oh Wait, That's Not Quite Right Anymore! Boo Yah! I Own Something! I One Tófa Biznatches! Lol. But No, Seriously, She's My Own OC. Not Too Big Of A Part Yet, But I Hope You Like Her. **

**Warning~ Lots Of OOC Tony, Though, Did We Ever Really Know Tony IN Character? Food For Thought. (A Virtual Arc Reactor For Anyone Who Got That I Was Quoting RDJ As Sherlock Holmes There. ;P) Anyway, Onto The Chapter, Enjoy! X3 **

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**_Ch.20_**

**_Ever Thought Of Children?_**

**_~2,907~ _**

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_Tony landed on the ground and sighed, before looking up, at the people coming toward him from the patio, with a big grin. He held out his hand and gave them all a thumbs up. _

"_I won!"_

Everyone watched in awe as the clouds shifted, just a few minutes after Tony flew after Ororo. They had never see anything like it before.

"Holy crap." Scott said, staring in wonder at the awesome display of power and control.

"Is something wrong?" Pepper asked worriedly, not taking her eyes off the changing clouds.

"Nothing is wrong my dear," Charles said with a small smile, also keeping his eyes on the clouded sky. "Anthony is simply not holding back as much as he usually does."

"Holding back?" Jean asked confused, looking at the professor. "When has he ever held back?"

"My dear Jean, have you ever seen Anthony over exert himself using his telekinesis?"

Jean paused to think back, they had all seen Tony over exert himself before, whenever he over used his electrokinesis. And now that Jean thought about it, it had _always_ been his electrokinesis, never his telekinesis.

"No." Jean answered. "Have you ever seen him exhaust his using his telekinesis Professor?"

"I have never." Charles answered. "Though, he has exhausted himself nearly completely before, using both powers."

Everyone turned to look at Charles in surprise for a second before looking back up at the clouds. They churned and flowed, as if being forced into a moving patten; creating a donut shape, spinning chaotically. They could just see a dot in the middle, and a dot on the outside; Tony and Ororo, respectively. It was obvious that Tony was using his telekinesis, but damn, they had no idea he was that powerful. They watched as soon both disappeared into the swirling clouds, Ororo seemingly being pulled in, while Tony flew in purposefully.

Then it got exciting, Lightening started shooting out, from the area where the two had entered, at random, as if being deflected. They could tell Ororo was losing stamina form the brightness and strength of the lightening. After a few minutes they saw a dot fall from the cloud, and a second later the cloud started to disappear, the clouds moving away, leaving the donut shape for a more normal cloud shape before dissolving and disappearing altogether. They watched in slight horror as Ororo plummeted towards the ground, gaining speed the farther she fell.

They weren't panicking because they knew Tony wouldn't let her fall to the ground, though he did let her get pretty close. What worried them was when Ororo didn't sit up right away. They noticed she wasn't breathing and that was when they started to panic; beginning to run out onto the lawn. Though a second later she sat up with a loud gasp followed by Tony landing a few feet from her. They slowed their frantic run into an excited jog when they realized that the fight was over.

As they neared the two, Tony lifted his hand in a thumbs up.

"I won!" He smiled at them, a big, _real,_ grin spreading across his face.

"Congrats Tony!" Pepper said as she ran up to him, embracing him with a hug. "That was amazing!"

"Thanks Pep." Tony said, hugging her back, then turning to Ororo, who was still on the ground. "You okay?"

"I am fine." She smiled at him.

"Good, I didn't really want to hurt you." Tony sighed in relief.

"Okay, Tony won the tournament, time to celebrate with a cold one." Logan said, a small smirk on his face.

"Logan, you already have a beer." Jean said.

"Please, he's already drank practically a whole 6-pack already." Rogue said with a snort.

"So?" Logan asked with a raised eyebrow.

This prompted everyone to start laughing. There were some pats on the back and hugs for Tony in congratulations and his victories over Jean and Ororo. Though, Logan did tease him a bit about beating two girls, but Jean, Ororo, Rogue, and even Pepper, glared at him, Tony did not envy Logan. Jean even slapped Logan on the back of the head saying that he couldn't win his match so don't take it out on Tony. Logan just grumbled something no one could understand, but it was presumably an apology.

The lighthearted aura of the adults brought the younger kids back out to the yard, either going back to their previous activity or going over to the adults and talking to them.

Pepper watched as girl with short spiky blond hair came up to Tony, she didn't look a day over 16 and she seemed a little nervous. Pepper watched raptly as Tony and the girl talked, she could just make out what they were saying.

"Um... Mr. Stark?" The girl asked.

"Please, call me Tony." Tony said with a small smile. "And what's your name?"

"They call me the Human Battery," The girl said, "But my name is Tófa Kenna."

"Alright, Tófa, what can I do for you?" Tony asks with a friendly smile.

"Well, um..." Tófa hesitates. "I was wondering if you could help me with something?"

"Sure, what do you need help with?" Tony asked, already having an idea of what if could be.

"Well, I'm having trouble with my powers." She admitted quietly, almost sounding ashamed.

"Well, that's all right, everyone has trouble with them at some point." Tony reassured her with a gentle pat on her shoulder. "Now what can I do to help you?"

"You see, I absorb energy and hold it, the I can let it back out in a ball of energy or as a forcefield." Tófa said, and when Tony nodded she continued. "But I'm having trouble with it."

"And what part exactly are you having trouble with?" Tony asked, an eyebrow raised in question and curiosity.

"Well, every part." She said with a slight blush. "It only works when I'm worked up and running on a battle high or when I'm totally pissed off."

"Hmm. I see what you mean." Tony said. "So you can't use your powers when you want to? Could you absorb energy right now?"

"No." Tófa shook her head. "I was wondering if you could help me. You can absorb energy too, so I thought, maybe you could give me some tips?"

"Sure, I'd be glad to help." Tony said, "But one question Tófa."

"Sure anything!" She said, happy the prospect that she could be learning to control her powers.

"Energy powers are dangerous, have you ever lost control of your powers?" Tony asked as softly as he could.

"... I have." Tófa said, sounding sad, quite a contrast to her happiness a second ago.

Pepper wanted to go over to them and hug the poor girl and yell at Tony, but she watched from a distance as Tony patted the girls shoulder again.

"It's all right Tófa, it's a part of being a mutant to lose control." Tony said comfortingly. "I just needed to know, because now I know why you're so hesitant. But don't worry, I'll help you out."

"Really?" Tófa asked hopefully.

"Of course!" Tony smiled. "Let go down to my lab and I can help teach our how to absorb energy safely."

"Thank you!" Tófa yelled as she hugged him. "Thank you! Thank you!"

Pepper watched with a smile as Tony and the girl walked into the house, the girl still thanking him and Tony smiling happily. Pepper had never seen this side of Tony. Sure she'd seen him act soft towards kids before, she knew he secretly loved them, but she had never see him act like that. She was seeing a bunch of firsts from Tony, well firsts for her, the others had probably seen Tony like this a thousand times already. It made her feel kind of sad that she hadn't known sooner, but it also made her happy that she was able to see her boyfriend like this at all, he could have easily played last night off and had told her a lie, which she probably wouldn't have believed, but she wouldn't have called him out on it. Pepper turned away from watching Tony and Tófa go into the house and looked back out at all the students. They had all gone back to what they were doing before; swimming, football, target practice, etc.

The rest of the day went by quietly, lunch was, again, ordered in, as was dinner. Tony and Tófa surfaced once, grabbing some lunch, before heading back to the lab. They chatted excitedly, having already become friends and chatting about energy and gadgets; apparently she was a tech geek like Tony, it was probably something to do with their mutations, both being able to absorb energy and all, but it was just a guess. They came up for dinner, Tófa seemingly very happy and excited.

"Miss Gray! Miss Gray!" She called out as she rand over to Jean, talking animatedly. "Look, look!"

"Calm down Tófa." Jean said, a small smiled on her face, obviously used to excited children. "Now what is it you want to show me?"

She pulled out a lightbulb and held it up. A look of concentration appeared on Tófa's face, and a second later the bulb lit up. Her face lit up in a big smile as she looked at the lit bulb. It flickered out but the smile stayed on Tófa's face.

"Look! I can control it now!" She exclaimed happily.

"Wow! Congratulations Tófa." Jean said, truly happy for the young girl. "That amazing! You've improved so much."

"Tony's been helping me! He makes it so easy to learn!" She said, a slight blush coloring her cheeks.

"It was all you Tófa." Tony said, coming up behind the young girl. "I couldn't teach you if you didn't want to learn."

Tófa's blush deepened and Tony laughed. The two walked over to the table where dinner was set out buffet style; there was chicken; fried, and baked, potatoes; mashed, baked, scalloped, vegetables; broccoli, corn, green beans, etc., and drinks; water, juice, milk, and an assortment of sodas. The desert hidden away so the kids didn't spoil their dinners. They continued to talk, Tony giving her instructions.

"Now, I'll be leaving tomorrow." Tony said and Tófa pouted, causing Tony to chuckle. "Don't pout, we'll see each other again, and I can help you a lot more now that I like in New York."

That made her smile again and they sat down on the couch to eat their food.

"Anyway, just keep doing what I told you, imagine the energy around you and don't forget to practice." Tony said around a chunk of chicken. "I'll have JARVIS let you into the lab so you can practice in there just incase you spark out. He'll also give you access to some of my work if you want to fiddle with it, or raw materials if you want to make something yourself."

Tófa beamed and thanked Tony again and they continued to chat animatedly until their dinners were done and it was time for bed. Tony and Pepper retired to their bedroom, laying down to go to sleep.

"Hey Tony?" Pepper asked as she slipped under the covers.

"Hmm?" Tony mumbled as he pulled Pepper close.

"You seemed to have fun today, locked in your lab with the girl Tófa." She said, trying to sound jealous but really she was just amused.

"Sh's sm'rt, and learns f'st." Tony's muffled voice said, his face buried in Pepper's hair. "Good lis'ner. Wick'd powers."

"Did you enjoy teaching her?" Pepper queried.

"Fun." Tony replied.

"Do you ever think about having kids?" Pepper asked out of no where.

That caught Tony's attention and he lifted his head and propped himself up on his elbow so he could look down at Pepper.

"Where'd that come from Pep?" He asked.

Pepper blushed.

"It's just, being surrounded by all those kids, and seeing you interact with them, and you look so happy." Pepper rambled. "It makes me think, would it be like that if we had kids? Would I get to see you that happy all the time? Would our kids be mutants? If they were, what powers would they have? Would they be as smart as you? It just makes me think."

Tony smiled fondly down at Pepper before leaning down and connecting their lips in a soft, tender kiss that was full of love. When he pulled away she could see the love in his eyes.

"Pep, when we have kids they'll be wonderful, whether they have powers or not, we'll love them and I'll stay up late when they cry at night, because lets face it, I'll be up then anyway. They'll probably have powers, males carry the genes for it, and I'll definitely be this happy and more." Tony said, love flowing in his voice as he laid back down and pulled Pepper close, talking into her ear. "And with me and you as their parents, they'll be the smartest kids in the world, graduating high school in their preteens and college before they hit 20, just like their dad, but they'll have better sense and get good jobs like their mom."

Pepper teared up as Tony talked, not because he was talking about the kids they could have, but because he had said 'when' and not 'if.' He wanted kids too, had apparently thought about it before and wanted them with her. Not some bimbo model from a calendar, but her. She turned around in his arms, looking straight in his eyes and smiled. She kissed him softly and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I love you." Pepper said as she closed her eyes.

"Love you too Pep." He said and they fell asleep.

The next day wasn't nearly as exciting, but it was a learning experience. The kids all had class, both practical and academic. Pepper watched and even helped out with what she could, mostly replacing targets or helping teach math, he did spot that error of Tony's. The day passed quickly, and before anyone knew it, it was time for Tony and Pepper to leave to catch their flight back to New York.

The goodbyes were tearful yet happy, and promises of future visits once everyone was back in New York were given. Charles said that they would be going back to their mansion in a week or so, once everything was mostly cleaned up.

The plane ride back was quiet as they watched the news on the attack and theories about the 'elusive' Avengers; mostly wondering where they came from. 5/6ths of the Avengers were relatively unknown. Sure Captain America was a bit famous with the comic books, but not many people knew of him now days. Tony was really the only well known Avenger, so he was talked about a lot. Most of the theories about the others were merely speculation and educated guessing. Like the fact that Natasha and Clint were spies; Tony bet their black outfits gave them away. Hulk was semi well known in New York, after breaking Harlem and all, but no one really knew of Bruce, so the little bit of footage they got of him while talking to the group before transforming created a lot of talk. And the idea of Thor being an actual God created a lot of controversy; Religious fanatics were apparently coming out of the woodworks denying the calm he was a God. Tony thought it was all pretty funny, while Pepper thought it was a PR nightmare.

Once they landed, Happy picked them up and drove them to the tower. It took nearly an hour longer than it usually did. While Manhattan was getting cleaned up pretty fast, there was a lot of damage and it would be week, maybe even months, before it was all cleaned up and probably a year before buildings were completely rebuilt.

When they arrived at the tower, it was close to 7:00pm but they were met with the odd site of Bruce and Steve playing chess in the kitchen, Clint trying to explain football to Thor, and Natasha sitting at the bar, sipping a vodka martini.

"Welcome back." Bruce greeted, seeing as he was the first to notice them.

"Hey." Tony said, confused a bit. "Fury expecting you all to move in? Or is it just till we send Loki off to space?"

"Actually Fury's requested that Loki stay on Earth for a bit longer, he wants to interrogate him more. Get some answers." Natasha said with a noncommittal shrug.

"Really? And that means you can just take over our home?" Tony asked, not putting any real irritation in it.

"If it's a problem, then we can tell Fury that we need a new loca-" Steve started, but was cut off.

"It's fine." Tony said quickly. "I don't mind, it's Pepper you need to convince. It's 12% hers, so-Ow!"

Pepper elbowed Tony in the ribs, and gave him a glare that just made him smile. She turned to the group with a smile.

"You're all welcome to stay here." She said then turned back to Tony. "Time for bed."

"Oh come on Pep!" Tony whined as Pepper dragged him back towards the elevator. "It's not even 7 o'clock yet!"

"Tony, we had a big day and I know you're tired," Pepper said in a strict voice. "We're going to bed."

"Fine." Tony relented. "Bruce!"

Bruce looked up from his chess game.

"We're having a ScienceBro day in the lab tomorrow!" Tony yelled just as the doors shut, not giving Bruce the chance to say no.

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**E/N~ So What'd You Think? This Was Mostly Filler So I Could Get Tony & Pepper Back To The Tower, So Sorry If It Was Kinda Rushed. But I Hoped You Liked It. & Yeah, Tófa Will Probably Not Be A **_**Main**_** Character In The Story, But Definitely Someone To Watch Out For As A Part Of The X-Men & Someone Tony Cares For. Like An Apprentice, protégé, Or Disciple Of Tony's, Like Jean Is Charles' & Rouge Is Logan's. **

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**Also, Big Announcement, Next Week, There Might Not Be A Chapter. My Mother & Her Family Is Coming Out For Like A Whole Month & I'll Be Busy Doing Family Stuff & Traveling & Other Family Activities The Whole Time. & The Only Time I'll Really Get To Write Is On The Car Rides. Thank Thor I Don't Get Carsick. So It's Just A Warning That There Might Not Be A Chapter Next Week… Actually For The Next Month, Just Expect Spotty Updates. I'll Write When I Can & Update When The Chapters Are Done, So Check Frequently(Like Every Other Day Really) For New A Chapter. Sorry, But I Haven't Seen My Mom & Siblings In Like A Year, So… Yeah, I'll Get Sick Of Them Real Fast & Probably Hide Outside Or Something. **

**Anyway, Thanx For Reading! & Please Review! They Mean The World To Me! X3 **


	21. It's Going To Be A Long Night

**A/N~ …Hey Everyone… Heh Heh, DON'T KILL ME! I Know I'm WAY Late… Or Early Considering It's Sunday & What Not. & I Know I Promised That I Would Update On Tuesday, But I Was Freaking BUSY! &… I'm Not Going To Excuse Myself, I'm Sorry. But I Have This Chapter I Think You're Going To Like. There's Definitely Some Development In This Chapter, Seeing As It's ****5k!**** I KNOW RIGHT? Longest Chapter EVER! It Just Came To Me & I Spent Like 3 Hours Straight Typing This & Then Another Hour Fixing It Up A Little & Adding Details & Proofreading & Spellchecking. So I Hope You Like It. Also, I'm Already Working On The Next Chapter, So I Shouldn't Be Too Late With It… Though Saying It's Going To Be Up Tuesday Is A Bit Of A Stretch, But I'll Try. Though It'll Probably Friday. **

**ALSO! I'm Going To Be Heading Up To Oregon Soon, So I'll Be Busy & Probably Wont Have Internet A Lot, So I Wont Be Able To Respond To Any Reviews Or PM Right Away. Just A Warning. X3 **

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**Warning~ Tony's Mouth, My Writing Skills, & Some Stuff That Never Happened In The Movie But I Think Totally Should Have! XD**

**Disclaimer~ I DO NOT Own Anything. Nothing. If I Ever Say I DO Own Something, It's All A Figment Of My Imagination... Anyway, ENJOY! X3 **

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**_Ch.21_**

**_It's Going To Be A Long Night._**

**_~5,132~_**

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"_Tony, we had a big day and I know you're tired," Pepper said in a strict voice. "We're going to bed." _

"_Fine." Tony relented. "Bruce!" _

_Bruce looked up from his chess game. _

"_We're having a ScienceBro day in the lab tomorrow!" Tony yelled just as the doors shut, not giving Bruce the chance to say no._

_**~ME~StartDream**____**~ME~**_

"_Stark, you know that's a one way trip." Rogers said though the Com. _

"_Save the rest for the return J." Tony said, ignoring the Captain. _

"Sir. Shall I try Miss Potts?_" JARVIS asked sadly. _

"_Might as well." Tony replied as a picture of Pepper appeared on the screen, the word 'Calling...' appeared over the picture in blue writing, but she never picked up._

_Tony flew faster and faster, pushing up on the missile in his arms until he was flying vertically. He just skimmed the top of his tower with his stomach just before he flew though the portal. All sound ceased around him the only sound he heard was the missile detaching from his suit, then JARVIS's static filled voice. He couldn't even understand what the AI had said, but he guessed it was about the call to Pepper, since the screen was now blinking red with the words 'Call Failed.' _

_Tony instantly felt the cold rush his suit as it died, he hadn't made it space proof, so everything that space was(Ironically nothing) encompassed him in his could barely keep his eyes open long enough to watch as the Nuke careened with it's target, exploding in a beautiful array of oranges and reds and a surprisingly bright flash of blue that reminded him of the Arc Reactor that shown in his chest. He watched for a second as the leviathan whale that were near the ship died in mid flight. _

_Tony couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, he was exhausted, he could feel the shrapnel moving, which meant the Reactor had stopped working. His eyes began to slowly close of their own accord. He just wished he could have said goodbye to Pepper. His eyes locked onto the bright orange blast he had just created, and they closed._

___**~ME~EndDream**____**~ME~**_

Tony's eye's shot open and he dragged in a ragged breath. He looked at the clock out of habit; he'd awoken from a nightmare at 10:27pm, just a few hours since Pepper had dragged him to bed. It wasn't unusual for him to awake from nightmares, after all the crap he'd gone though, but this was a new one. He had dreamt about going into the portal. How the cold lifelessness of space filled his body and the feeling of dying took over. He remembered that the last thing he saw, before waking up on the concrete of a broken New York, was the blinding explosion the nuke caused when it hit the Chitauri's mother ship. Tony woke up in a cold sweat, shivers running down his spine and his body wracked with shudders.

Tony got up, careful not to wake Pepper, and went into the en suite bathroom for a quick shower, to try and ease his trembling. By the time he was exited the shower, it was nearing 11pm, and he wasn't in the mood for a second try at sleep. He decided to get some coffee and head down to the lab, maybe work on the renovation plans for the tower. He quietly got dressed in a pair of jeans and a shirt and headed to the kitchen.

He walked blindly though his dark room, dodging random object that littered his floor, to the door, thankfully not waking Pepper up as he left. He made his way down the hall and to the elevator, riding it up a few floors to the kitchen/living room area of the tower. He was rubbing his eyes, trying to wake himself up even more when the doors opened and he walked out. He didn't notice the 5 people watching him as he entered the kitchen. He silently went about making himself a large cup of dark black Italian roast coffee, nothing beat his specially grown coffee from his own _personal coffee plantation_. They made the good stuff and Tony only wanted the good stuff.

He took a big whiff as the machine began pumping out the liquid gold, he nearly sighed in relief. Then suddenly there was a sound behind him and he turned around faster than he thought possible, holding a spoon, he'd used in scooping the coffee, up as a weapon. Then he saw that it was is buddy Bruce. He sighed again in relief and set the spoon down and putting a hand over the Arc Reactor.

"God! Bruce don't sneak up on me like that!" Tony said, sagging against the counter. "You do know I have a heart problem right?"

"Sorry Tony." Bruce said with an amused tone and a small smile. "It's just, you walked right past all of us again."

Tony stared at Bruce in confusion for a second before the words clicked.

"Us?" Tony asked and walked to the opening that linked the kitchen and the living room and sticking his head out.

Bruce had been right, and Tony quickly spotted the other 4 Avengers sitting around the living room. Thor glanced over at him and smiled.

"Hello Friend Stark!" Thor said loudly and waved, causing everyone else to look at him.

"Uh... Hey Point Break." Tony said and hesitated for a second before nodding. "Everyone."

The other 3 nodded back, all holding a slightly amused expression their faces. Tony pulled his head back into the kitchen and walked back to the coffee machine, which was now done.

"So, what's got you up?" Bruce asked. "You only went to bed a few hours ago."

"Nothing much, just not that tired." Tony shrugged as he poured himself a generous amount of coffee. "Was going to go down to the lab to get some work done."

"You should join us for a bit." Bruce suggested as he walked out of the kitchen, leaving Tony to his coffee.

Tony slowly sipped his coffee as he thought about what he was going to do. He had planned on working on the tower; he knew Fury wanted them all to move into the tower as a team, so he'd have to add a few things to accommodate them. Maybe he could ask what kind of things they'd want or run ideas by them? A gym was obvious, but maybe a gun/archery range? Tony already had an idea about a strong room for Bruce to Hulk-out in. The man really needed to let loose more often. So Tony decided to stay and chat.

Tony refiled his coffee and walked back out to the living room, scanning for a place to sit. He decided to take a secluded spot on a single chair, away from everyone else, giving him the perfect vantage point so he could see everyone.

"So, what're you all up for?" Tony asked, only slightly uncomfortable.

"We just got a call from Fury." Natasha said, her face blank.

"Really?" Tony asked. "What'd the pirate want?"

"He wants us to sit in on the interrogation of Loki." Steve said, all traces of amusement gone from his face. "He wants us to be prepared for anything, so he wants us to watch all the footage we have of him to try and get used to him."

"When are we going to head out?" Tony asked, sipping his coffee; he'd figured Fury would want to question Loki about the invasion and the Tesseract.

"We're not." Natasha said cryptically.

"Then what? A video conference?" Tony asked. "That's not really sitting in."

"He's coming here." Clint said.

"Who?" Tony asked incredulously. "Loki?"

"Aye, my brother has apparently agreed to tell us everything, but only if he can do it here." Thor said seriously, looking right at Tony. "I beseech you to allow my brother to speak."

Tony paused for a second, he didn't really care, but considering what Loki had done, he should try and help get whatever info out of the God as possible, and if that meant letting the God use his tower as a confessional, why not?

"I guess, but why here?" Tony sighed. "What's so special about my freaking tower?"

"I believe it is a principle." Thor said. "He has other demands that must be accomplished before he is to talk."

"More demands?" Tony asked confused. "What could he want that Fury's willing to give?"

"Well, you, for one." Clint said snidely.

"Me?" Tony said shocked. "Loki wants me? And Fury just said yes? Well, I have a say in this seeing as I'm just a civilian consultant, and I say fuck, NO!"

"Calm down Stark." Natasha said. "It's not you exactly, he wants you to be the one to head the interrogation, to ask the questions, not Fury, apparently he thinks you will be more fair than Fury. No doubt a true theory."

"Well, that's better. But Fury really agreed to that? Hard to believe."

"Believe it." Clint said.

"So when are they coming over?" Tony questioned.

"Tomorrow, around 11, he'll be gagged and handcuffed, but we'll probably have the interrogation in here." Steve said, waving around the room. "Fury also said that Loki distinctly asked for the drink he's owed. Though none of us know where he got that idea in his head. I think he said something about a drink when we captured him too."

"Yeah, that one was me." Tony said nonchalantly as he sipped his coffee and leaned back on his chair.

"What?" Clint asked in semi shock. "You offered him a drink?"

"Well yeah, I mean, I was having one, didn't want to be rude." Tony said as if it were nothing. "Besides, I was in the midst of threatening him."

"And when was this exactly?" Natasha asked stone faced.

"Uh, just before he threw me out of the window." Tony said, thinking about it.

"He threw you out of the window?" Bruce asked surprised, speaking up for the first time since talking in the kitchen. Bruce turned to look at the window and pointed. "_That_ window?"

Tony followed Bruce's eye line and nodded.

"Yep, that's the one." Tony said, sipping more of his coffee.

"How did you survive?" Steve asked, obviously forgetting who he was talking to.

"Uh... The Suit." Tony said slowly. "Duh."

"I thought you had to have the platform put it on?" Natasha asked sharply; she didn't like being out of the loop.

"Upgrades." Tony said with a wave of his hand. "New model, Mark VII, though I'm already working on the Mark VIII."

"Do you ever stop building?" Bruce asked.

"I'm not building now?" Tony said, then relented. "Though JARVIS has my fabricators working nearly 24/7, so no, not really."

"You're a workaholic." Bruce said with a small smile.

"Agreed, now, next topic." Tony said, his own smile on his face. "Is there anything else Fury said?"

"Just that we're supposed to stay here." Steve said.

"Of course, I figured." Tony sighed. "So, this is probably going to be our HQ from now on, seeing as it's strategically the best place in the whole city."

"I agree!" Thor said. "And the hight of your tower is very pleasing as we can see out over the kingdom."

"City Thor." Tony laughed. "Anyway, you're all going to be staying here for the foreseeable future, and I'm doing renovation to the tower, so if you want anything specifically added to your rooms or something everyone can use, tell me or JARVIS and I'll see what I can do."

Everyone was quiet. They all looked at each other, unsure what they could need extra.

"Can I get a window room?" Bruce said, then quickly explained. "I think I'd fell less likely to destroy your home if I were to be able to see out of the tower... Maybe something like a glass wall, facing the water."

The 'easy escape route' was left out, but implied.

"Our home Bruce." Tony said. "If you live here, I think by definition it'd your home too. And done. Anyone else?"

Bruce's request jump started everyone's minds, and they started blurting out things they wanted or things that everyone could use.

"Can I get a hammock in my room instead of a bed? And lots of pillow." Clint asked.

"Can you instal a compartment to come out of the wall in my bedroom to serve as a gun rack?" Natasha asked, and no one asked why she wanted a gun rack in her room.

"If it's not too much trouble could I also get a window room, maybe facing either the sun set or the sun rise?" Steve asked timidly. "Or a corner room so I could see part of both?"

"Perhaps I would be granted a larger bed? All of the Midgardian ones I have seen while here have been tiny compared to my bed in Asgard."

"Yeah yeah, all of that is doable. JARVIS, mark all of that down and it to the blueprints for the tower." Tony said, looking up at the ceiling.

"_Already done Sir._" JARVIS replied.

"Good, now, on to things for the whole team." Tony said. "I was thinking of a gym, a gun range/archery pitch, and maybe a pool. And of course a landing pad for a Quinjet. What do you think? Can you think of anything else?"

"That sounds great!" Clint said enthusiastically. "You should add moving targets to the range/pitch and maybe a training room with dummies and stuff like that."

"JARVIS add that to the ideas." Tony said and this time JARVIS didn't reply.

"If you add a gym I'd make sure you have a good supply of punching bags." Steve said a bit sheepishly.

"Oh I've heard of your ability to demolish sand bags, I'll have to make some more durable ones for you." Tony smirked. "Maybe even ones that can move and dodge."

Steve nodded at Tony with a look of anticipation at the thought of moving punching bags, though he wasn't sure how Tony would accomplish something like that. They talked about other renovations and things they could add to the tower. The idea of a game Tony brought up the idea of a Hulk-out room for Bruce, and surprisingly Bruce thought it would be a good idea, but only if Tony could somehow promise that the Other Guy could get out of it. Tony promised and then Steve brought up what Fury has said.

"It's getting late and Fury said he wanted us to look over all the footage of Loki we have to prepare ourselves for tomorrow." Steve said, pointing to the clock that said 11:48pm. "What footage do we have anyway?"

"He's probably assuming that I've downloaded all the footage." Tony said fiddling with his empty cup.

"Did you?" Clint asked.

"Of course!" Tony said proudly. "JARVIS, pull up all the footage we have on Loki will ya? And play it on the flat screen."

JARVIS didn't reply but the TV lit up and the screen began playing the footage from the SHIELD base where the Tesseract had been kept before Loki took it. It was interesting to see the crappy shape that Loki had been in when he came to Earth, even Thor commented on it, saying that 'My Brother seems to be ill, why would he not wait till he was at full strength?' No one had the answer to that, so they continued watching.

Clint tensed up when they watched Loki take control of him, but no one said anything as the scene changed to Germany. Most of them cringed when Loki used the device to carve out the man's eye. They watched as Iron Man easily beat Loki when Captain America couldn't.

"Always one for the flashy entrance aren't you Tony?" Bruce asked with a slight chuckle.

"My suit isn't exactly stealthy with it's loud repulsors, so when the enemy knows you're coming, why not make an entrance." Tony shrugged. "Besides, it distracts them from what they were doing, buying time whatever."

No one could fault Tony on the solid reason for the grand entrance, and Clint even nodded in agreement. They watched as Loki was loaded up into the Quinjet and then Thor attacked. Thor apologized again for attacking them without forethought. Tony had to wonder why Loki hadn't tried to run away when he had been fighting Thor, but he didn't voice his concerns, not having anything to back them up or give any validation to his worries, besides, he had other ways he could either prove or disprove his theory. They watched as Loki was escorted from the Quinjet to where Fury locked him in the chamber designed to contain Hulk.

The next scene was one none of them had known had happened, except Tony, seeing as the man was in it. Surprised but not at the same time, as Tony walked on the screen.

___**~ME~StartFootage**____**~ME~**_

_Tony entered the room that housed the insane God, no one was around and said God was simply looking up at the roof to his 'cell.' _

"_Well, if this is what Prison is like, I'm thankful I have better lawyers than you?" Tony said with false cheeriness. _

"_And what do you want Man of Iron?" Loki said as he looked over at Tony with a bored expression. "Please tell me you are not here to try and interrogate me for information? Because I would think the Spider would be better suited." _

"_Oh no, nothing like that." Tony said, pulling up a chair and sitting down. _

_Tony leaned back on the chair, kicked his feet up onto the yellow side rail pulled out a magazine from his pocket and began reading. Loki sat up and stared at Tony with a confused curiosity. _

"_I give, what do you want?" Loki asked after several minutes of silence. _

"_Why?" Tony said, not taking his eyes off his magazine. _

"_Excuse me?" Loki asked, standing up and walking over to the pain of glass where Tony was sitting. _

_Tony put the magazine on the ground beside the chair and stood up. He turned to look at Loki with a curiosity that could only come from someone who truly only wanted to know the answer to his question and wasn't digging for secrets. _

"_Why?" Tony asked again. "Why are you here? Why Earth? Why now?" _

_Loki simply stared at Tony with an unreadable expression, so Tony continued. _

"_I'm guessing you're here because you want revenge against Thor. Am I right?" Tony said in a thoughtful tone. "As for now? I bet it has to do with your guy's dad. Odin right? Though, from the mythology books I've read, you're not actually related to them are you?" _

"_What could you know!?" Loki suddenly spit out angrily, but quickly gained control of himself. "You know nothing of my supposed family. Thor put you up to this didn't he? You want to get a rise out of me and make me spill my plans." _

"_On the contrary, I couldn't care less about your plans while you're locked up in here." Tony said, waving his hand nonchalantly. _

"_Then what?" Loki asked impatiently. _

"_Like I asked, Why?" Tony asked again. "I know you're background, probably better than you do yourself, so you can cut the bullshit and just tell me." _

"_And why would I tell you?" Loki sneered. _

"_Because I'm simply curious as to your reasons. I know you wont win, so why not just tell me?" Tony said it with such an air of factuality, that even Loki thought for a second that he was going to lose. _

"_And what makes you so confident." Loki asked with a smirk, thinking that over confidence would be Stark's downfall and he'd be able to turn this back around on him. _

"_It's not confidence, It's knowledge." Tony said matter of factly. "I know more than you." _

"_Do you now?" Loki asked a little shakily; Tony's confidence level was starting to get to him. "And what could you know that I don't?"_

"_For one, I know how that little scepter works." Tony said. _

"_And you don't think I do?" Loki asked, trying to sound angry, but sounding more surprised than anything. _

"_You know, for a liesmith, you suck at lying." Tony deadpanned. "Lets stop all this chicken chasing and actually get somewhere shall we? I know that you don't know how that scepter works. It's not yours." _

_Loki's mouth dropped open in shock and it took a few seconds before he visibly shook himself. _

"_How?" He growled. "How do you know that it's not mine?" _

"_It's obvious. You're not used to it in the way you fight." Tony explained. "And the fact that you haven't, or _can't,_ called it to you, or tried to escape from this thing yet." Tony knocked his knuckles on the glass in front of him. "When we both know that with your magic, it would be easer than kicking a rock down a hill for you to escape." _

_Loki looked at him, suspicion filling his blue eyes. But Loki felt resigned to the human that knew more than possible. _

"_Yes, I could escape any time." Loki took a step back and smirked, then motioned to the glass cage around him. "This wasn't made for me, it can't block my magic, I can easily teleport out of here, Or create a duplicate and leave him in here while I transform myself into one of your SHIELD agents and tour this facility without you knowing." _

"_So why haven't you?" Tony asked. _

_Loki considered Tony for a second, looking him up and down. _

"_Why haven't you told your director that you were coming?" Loki asked, taking a gamble with the question for he had no way of knowing, beside his impression of Stark. _

"_Well," Tony said with a raised eyebrow. "he's not my director." _

"_Beg your pardon?" Loki asked confused. _

"_I don't actually work for him in SHIELD." Tony said with a shrug. "I'm like a semi-consultant." _

"_Are you not a part of his little team of superheros?" Loki asked with a sneer, obviously not believing him. _

"_No, I didn't qualify. Like I said I'm a consultant." Tony said with a sigh. "A civilian consultant, I can quit whenever I want, I don't have to take jobs if I don't want and I don't have to do _any_thing I don't want to. Not that they would ask me anything I wouldn't want to do anyway. They don't ask me anything or trust me as it is." _

"_Those you work for don't trust you?" Loki asked curiously with a smile. _

"_Keep you friends close, but your enemies closer." Tony shrugged and matched Loki's smile. "I'm pretty sure that's in their rule book somewhere. Besides I hack into their files every other day as it is." _

"_Ah, you don't trust them either." Loki observed, he was starting to like this human. _

"_Not one bit." Tony said seriously. _

"_Tell me more." Loki encouraged. _

"_Only if you answer my questions back." Tony haggled, sitting back down and leaning back. "Only fair." _

_Loki took a second to think about it, he looked up to the devises that he had learned could transmit his pictures for others to see: they were called cameras, a nosey Midgardian invention. _

"_What about the cameras?" Loki asked. "Will the director not angry that you are potentially giving up their secrets?"_

"_Like I care." Tony said with a snort. "I couldn't care what that Cyclops thinks, he doesn't scare me. My girlfriend is scarier than him." _

_Loki raised an eyebrow at that, but refrained from commenting about it, instead going back to his original query. _

"_So, why don't you trust this SHIELD?" Loki asked. _

"'_Why would I' is more of a reasonable question." Tony scoffed. "One I wouldn't be able to answer though. SHIELD is an intelligence organization one that fears the world's most intelligent people, i.e. me. In the history of our world that's not a good thing. Besides I know who help found SHIELD, that in itself is enough reason not to trust a single person in SHIELD." _

"_Oh? And who founded SHIELD?" _

"_My father helped found it." Tony said emotionlessly. _

_That caught Loki off guard. He would have thought that maybe it was one of Starks' enemies whom he had beat, but a family member, and his father no less? And He didn't trust the organization as a whole simply because of that fact? The similarities between him and Stark were beginning to show, and Loki wasn't liking them. _

"_Your father?" Loki asked. "Why would you not trust your father?" _

"_Why would I?" Tony practically snarled as he sat up straighter. "That bastard was the most untrustworthy person I knew. A terrible person, a terrible father, and a terrible businessman to boot." _

"_You did not like your father." Loki stated. _

"_Howard, my father, was not a person whom people liked." Tony spat. "He built weapons of mass destruction and marveled in their destructive ability, something I never thought was even human. Even when I built weapons, I marveled in their ability to preform, the limits I could reach and break though, creating smarter weapons, not bigger booms. Howard couldn't care less about creating better weapons, but bigger explosions." _

"_Intelligence is the key when fighting a war." Loki said wisely. "Brutes like that have no better __need_ than foot soldiers." 

"_Agreed." Tony said, and gave Loki a once over. "You definitely seem like the smart type, and Thor the brute type, you obviously have had to put up with a lot of crap I bet." _

"_Oh yes, a miserable amount of heckling and degrading because I prefer to think my way though a problem rather than trying to punch and kick my way though." Loki sighed. "My ho-Asgard is a realm full of Neanderthals whom prefer to take a sword or _hammer_ and dive into battle without a second thought as to who they are fighting. And I am persecuted because I don't." _

"_Yeah I can relate. The world didn't exactly take kind to my style of weapons at first, but eventually came around after realizing they were wrong..." Tony smirked. "Like usual."_

"_Lucky you are. I did not have that fortune." Loki sighed again. "Thor has always been the destined and I the doomed." _

"_Sounds like you're resigned to your fate" Tony observed. _

"_I am resigned to nothing!" Loki snarled suddenly. "It is forced upon me, even when I try to change things to help those around me instead, I am put in the wrong and literally _thrown_ into the abyss and left for dead." _

"_So why not just go somewhere else and start over?" Tony asked. _

"_And how exactly do you think I would be able to do that?" Loki asked sarcastically. "Starting over is not as easily as you make it out to be." _

"_No, but it's better than what you chose." Tony looked around the room. "Containment inside an organization who can literally follow you around the entire world and wants to probably dissect your ability to do magic, not a great choice. You could have just come here and said hi and be friendly. Taking the threatening and evil route seems to have done you well." _

_Loki laughed at that, actually laughed, not heckled or chuckled, but actually laughed, finding something very funny about what Tony has said. Tony must have thought so too, because he chuckled with him. _

"_Ah, I could have, but you do not understand Stark, I am not here for only myself. Revenge against Thor may have been what brought me here, but it is not my main motivator." Loki said as his laughing died down. "What you face in the near future will be far more frightening than you can ever imagine. And your Agent Barton has shown me all I need to know about each and every one on your little team." Loki paused for a second, looking thoughtfully. "Though now that you have spoken, I feel I shall not believe everything about you he had told me. For I find that you and your hacking ability will have caused some discrepancies. There is more to you than in your supposed file." _

"_You learn fast." Tony smirked and stood up again. _

"_We do what we must to survive." Loki smirked back. _

"_That we do, that we do." Tony said as he turned and walked out._

_____**~ME~EndFootage**____**~ME~**_

The screen changed and they silently watched as Natasha tried her own go at interrogating Loki, working only slightly. Though now Natasha thinks that Loki had wanted her to come to that conclusion, just so she would be uneasy around Bruce and make them all think that Loki was after Hulk. They watched the rest of the footage they had of Loki, Tony and Loki's chat in the vary room they all sat in, and the footage though out the battle. There was a few gasps when Loki tried to take control of Tony and there was some chuckling when Hulk smashed Loki into the floor, they had wondered what had caused the huge man shaped dent in the floor.

After watching the rest of the footage, they were about to discuss it when Tony stopped them and had JARVIS Bring up a holoscreen and two shots of different clips.

"What are you doing Tony?" Bruce asked curiously, watching as Tony had JARVIS open several video clips and fast forward though the footage and pause on certain spots.

"Just something I wanted to check." Tony murmured.

Tony clicked play on the first clip. It was of when Clint was hit with the scepter and Loki gained control of him. Clint stiffened as Tony paused on a very good shot of his face; showing the archer's eyes a startling cyan blue. The second a video being stopped on a picture of Loki just after he had taken over Clint; a close up of the God's face, his eyes also cyan blue. The third was again of Loki when he had been talking to Tony in the Helicarrier, again his eyes cyan. The next was also a shot of Loki, but when he had been fighting Thor; this also showed that Loki's eyes were cyan. The final shot was when they had all captured Loki, a close up of his face showed that his eyes were an emerald green. Tony took a step back, and with a few flicks of his wrists and some editing on JARVIS's part, the scene before them showed five sets of eyes, the first four sets all cyan blue and the final emerald green.

Tony stood back and looked at the pictures, proof of what he had been thinking since he had talked to Loki on the helicarrier. Obviously the others got what Tony was getting at, observing and studying the pictures closely.

"Tony..." Bruce said in awe. "Does this mean what I think it does?"

"I believe it does Bruce." Tony said, turning to look at everyone. "Loki's innocent."

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**E/N~ So? Did You Like It? Sorry Bout The Cliffy I Left It At, But It Just Seemed Such A PERFECT Spot To Stop At. XP **

**Please Tell Me What You Think About This Chapter! I'd Like To Know If You Like The Longer Chapters(4-5k) Or The Shorter Chapters(2-3k), Because I Could Totally Try & Make Them Longer If You Guys Wanted Me Too, But Then I Might Not Be Able To Post Every Week, Maybe Every 10-12 Days Or Longer Instead. So Please Review & Tell Me What You Think! PLEASE! X3**

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**Here's A Short Preview For Being Such Awesome Readers! X3 **

"So, I hear you want me to ask the questions."

Loki nodded, eyeing Tony warily as the genius sat across from him.

"So I have one question. Who?"

"What are you talking about Stark?" Fury barked out from behind him.

Loki was now staring at Tony with slightly wide eyes. The Avengers, who were standing beside the table so they could see both Tony and Loki were quiet, wondering the answer themselves.

"Who was controlling you Loki?"

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**Hope You Liked It! I Can't Wait To Hear All Of Your Thoughts! X3 **


	22. Proof Of Innocence

**A/N~ Hey Everyone, I Know I Said I'd Probably Update Friday, But I Felt I Was Getting A Bit Off With My Updating Schedule, So I Decided To Wait Till Tuesday So I Was Back On Schedule. Also This Chapter Now The Longest Chapter EVER! Over 6k! I'm Just Balling Though This! XD **

**Anyway, It's A Few More Chapters Before Anything REALLY Exciting Happens… Not Really Sure Yet How I'm Going To Do What I'm Planning. Don't You Hate That? You Know What You Want To Happen, But Then You Have No Idea How To Get That Idea Down In A Readable Format. It Sucks! But I'll Get it Done! XP **

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**Warning~ Tony Being Kind Of A BAMF! & A Basic Know-It-All, Because, Lets Face It, He Really Does Know It All(Or Eventually Figures It Out). **

**Disclaimer~ Not Mine, I Wish It Were, But Sadly Not. T-T … Anyway, ENJOY! X3**

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**_Ch.22_**

**_Proof Of Innocence_**

**_~6,112~_**

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_Tony stood back and looked at the pictures, proof of what he had been thinking since he had talked to Loki on the helicarrier. Obviously the others got what Tony was getting at, observing and studying the pictures closely. _

"_Tony..." Bruce said in awe. "Does this mean what I think it does?" _

"_I believe it does Bruce." Tony said, turning to look at everyone. "Loki's innocent." _

"Hold up a second!" Clint nearly shouted. "You think Loki's innocent?"

"Well, not completely innocent." Tony amended. "But I believe he wasn't in control of himself."

"How can you say that?" Clint asked incredulously.

"It's as easy as saying you're innocent of your crimes while being mind controlled."

That shut Clint up. Tony knew it was a sore spot for the archer, seeing as it had only been less than a since he had returned to himself, but if his theory rang true, then Loki was in the same boat, only it was seven times bigger and had sprung a leak bigger than the Titanic's.

"Clint, if Loki was being controlled, then you of all people know how he must feel. He tried to kill an entire world agains this will, he even tried to kill his brother." Tony said, surprisingly sympathetic. "Even if he was evil before, this is a whole new level. Just think how he must be feeling, how guilty he must feel."

Clint grumbled, but nodded in understanding. Thor on the other hand simply stared at the pictures on the screen in awe that bordered on reverence. Tony would have thought that Thor would be happy at the prospect of his brother's innocence, but as it seemed, the God was in shock.

Thor slowly turned from the screen holding the evidence to save his brother and looked Tony in the eye. Tony felt like he was the proverbial bug under the microscope, though with their size difference, he could have very well been a bug compared to Thor. Suddenly, Thor advanced on Tony, causing the billionaire to take a step back in a vain attempt at escaping. The large God wrapped his arms around Tony and lifted him up in a bear hug.

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU FRIEND STARK! THANK YOU!" Thor exclaimed boisterous, swinging Tony around in circles in his excitement. "IF YOU CAN PROVE MY BROTHER'S INNOCENCE, I SHALL SEE TO IT YOU ARE KNIGHTED IN THE KINGDOM OF ASGARD!"

Tony was having a hard time breathing as Thor tightened his hug. Tony tried to push away from the large man, but it was a futile attempt.

"Th-thanks Th-Thor! B-but if you... d-don't let go, I... won't b-be able... t-to help... at all!" Tony grunted as he continued to try and free himself. "C-can't... breathe!"

Thor quickly set Tony down and let go, letting Tony take a deep inhale of sweet, _sweet_ air.

"My apologies Friend." Thor smiled sheepishly. "I was foolish in my excitement."

"'So 'k Thor." Tony said, still catching his breath. "Just be careful next time. We Earthlings aren't made of the same stuff."

Thor smiled again and nodded, carefully patting Tony's back, and Tony returned the smile.

"Hold on a second." Steve said from where he sat on the couch next to Natasha, whom had the same look of annoyance on her face as Steve did.

"What is it?" Bruce asked.

"Tony, when did you talk to Loki?" Steve asked, frustration bleeding into his words as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Um... Like half an hour before you came barging into the lab and talked to me and Big Green." Tony answered, "Why?"

"Because, you moron," Natasha said angrily. "We could have used that information to help beat Loki sooner!"

"Or we could have had you question him more." Steve said standing up. "Maybe you could have gotten more information out of him!"

"Oh please." Tony sighed. "If Fury had wanted more information out of him via me, he would have just said so. He didn't, therefore he didn't want me talking more to Loki."

"Fury knew?" Natasha asked, her mask unbreakable as ever, though Tony could tell she was miffed that Fury was keeping things from her.

"Well duh. The room was filled with cameras." Tony said as if it were obvious. "Even Loki knew about them. Remember? Fury's little threat was broadcast though out the whole Helicarrier."

"I guess." Steve relented a bit. "But why didn't he tell us?"

"Steve, I'm going to do something I rarely do, something that, in fact, I _hate_ to do." Tony said slowly. "I'm going to repeat myself."

Everyone waited for a second as Tony left a dramatic pause. Bruce almost rolled his eyes when he realized that that was what Tony was going for.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's _the_ spy. His secrets have secrets." Tony said a seriously look on his face, then it quickly changed to a look as if he remembered something. "Oh that reminds me!" Tony pointed at Steve indignantly. "My tower is NOT ugly!"

Steve simply looked a sheepish for a second, but before he could even begin to apologize for calling the tower ugly, Tony's mind was sidetracked.

"And I'm craving blueberries again." Tony quickly walked into the kitchen, leaving the rest of the team to stare after him in confusion and amusement.

Tony came back a minute later with a small bag of blueberries, already shoveling them into his mouth. He stopped in his tracks as he noticed everyone's stares.

"What?" He asked.

"You are so scatterbrained." Bruce chuckled.

"Oh, this is pretty good for him." Natasha said with a sly smirk. "He used to be way worse."

"Oh Heaven forbid." Steve said, sitting back down. "Can we get back to the topic?"

"Which one?" Tony asked.

"Why on Earth wouldn't Fury tell us about the scepter?" Steve asked, looking Tony dead in the eye. "Or better yet, why didn't you?"

"Uh, beside the fact that I figured Fury would tell you?" Tony asked and Steve glared. "I really didn't have any reason to."

"No reason?" Steve stood up again in anger. "Beside the fact that we're a team?"

Steve took a few steps forward to stand next to Thor, who too happy that his brother could be innocent to really to really paying attention.

"Uh, yeah, back then you were kind of a pompous ass to me, so you were going to be the last person I'd tell." Tony deadpanned. "I would have even told Natasha before you, and I don't trust her at all."

"Hey!" Clint exclaimed, angry for his partner.

"No Clint." Natasha said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I understand where Stark's coming from, I sort of deserve it."

Clint looked from Natasha to Tony and back to Natasha before sitting back and relenting, but he kept a scowl on his face to show that he didn't like not knowing.

"You do not trust us Friend Stark?" Thor asked.

"Not really." Tony said and crossed his arms. "I've no real reason to trust any of you." Tony jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Bruce. "I trust Bruce, he's the only one in this room that hasn't either been a complete ass, lied directly to my face, or tried to kill me."

Bruce blushed. Everyone else realized the truth to Tony's statement; Steve had been a total jerk to Tony, Natasha had lied to him and spied on him for months, Thor had attacked Tony in the Quinjet when he went after Loki, and then fought against him when Tony came to get Loki back, and Clint, though not in control of himself, had tried to kill him when he blew up the Helicarrier. Bruce was the only one who hadn't done any of those things, and Bruce and Hulk had even saved Tony's life, none of them could compete with that.

"Tony..." Bruce said quietly, breaking the silence that had descended the room.

"It's fine, I can learn to trust the rest of you, provided you give me reasons to." Tony said. "Now, back to Loki."

As eager as Tony was to get off the topic of trust and distrust, Steve took the topic change and went with it.

"Right, Loki. What are we going to do when he come here?" Steve asked. "We can't just tell Fury that Loki wasn't in control of himself, Fury wont believe us."

"Well, we could show him the evidence we have." Bruce said. "Though I doubt that'd do it either."

"Why don't we could throw out whole hand down instead of playing just a few of our cards?" Tony asked, popping a few more blue berries into his mouth and offering some to Bruce.

"You mean get Loki to admit being controlled and then show Fury what we have to back it up?" Bruce asked, taking a few of the offered fruit.

"That could work." Clint said.

"Aye, but it will be most difficult." Thor said. "My brother is a very proud warrior, he will not admit to being out of his control easily."

"Just leave that to me." Natasha said. "I'll get it out of him."

"But Loki said he wanted Tony to ask the questions." Steve reminded them.

"I'll think of something." Tony said with a smirk. "I've got this."

"Got what?"

Everyone turned towards the elevator, not having heard it ding, to see a bed wrangled Pepper Potts standing in the door way: her hair was a mess and she was wearing a pair of pajama bottoms with a black tank top.

"Pepper! What are you doing up?" Tony asked, a worried smile appearing on his face as he dropped the blueberries on the coffee table and practically ran to Pepper.

"I woke up and you weren't there." Pepper said before yawning. "I figured you were in the lab, so I asked JARVIS how long you'd been in there, but he said you were having a meeting in the living room, so I came to investigate. Is something wrong?"

Pepper looked around the room with half awake eyes, barely registering the other Avengers enough to offer them a smile.

"Everything's fine." Tony said a bit too quickly. "Nothing to worry about."

The Avengers were shocked at how quickly Pepper's sleep filled eyes became alert and awake with a single blink in reaction to Tony's words. She set a glare at Tony causing him to nearly cringed.

"What happened." She demanded.

Tony sighed, knowing he could never win against his Pepper and gave her a sheepish look. Pepper sighed and walked with Tony over to the couches.

"How about some Coffee?" Tony offered

"That sounds good." Pepper said and waited for Tony to return with her drink.

"Well, do you want the good news or bad news first?" Tony asked as he handed her a warm mug.

"Bad news." Pepper said, taking a sip.

"Well, Loki's coming over tomorrow." Tony said.

To Pepper's credit she didn't choke on her coffee at the bad news, but she did heave a large sigh and set the cup down. She leaned her elbow on her knee and covered her eyes with her hand.

"Dare I ask why?" Pepper asked.

"Fury's coming with him, if that makes you feel any better." Tony said, earning another glare from Pepper. "Loki's said he'll talk, but only if it's here in the tower and only if it's me doing the questioning, so of course I said yes."

Pepper sighed again.

"It's still not the worst thing I've done." Tony said wryly.

"No, no it isn't." Pepper agreed. "But it's getting up there Tony. So what's the good news?"

"Oh yeah, Loki may be innocent." Tony said cheerfully.

Pepper looked up at him and gaped. The avengers found the couple's interactions quite humorous. It was obvious that they knew each other well, and several of them absently wondered how long Pepper had put up with Tony.

"Loki? Innocent?" Pepper asked. "Loki, the same guy who tried to take over the world less than a week ago, the same guy who blew up that SHIELD base, the same guy who nearly took down that flying Helicarrier, the same guy who _threw_ you out of the window? _That _window." She pointed to said window. "That Loki?"

"The one and the same." Tony said with a smile.

Pepper stared at Tony for a second before sighing again, she might have just reached a new world record for the most sighs in a five minute period.

"When do they get here?" Pepper asked, resigned to having a possibly(she didn't miss Tony's 'may be') murderous God in her home.

"Knowing Fury, he'll be here before the scheduled time, so probably around 10am." Tony said, sitting next to her.

"Anything else I should know?" She asked and stood up.

"Uh... not at the moment." Tony said. "Besides the fact that everyone here is going to be moving into the tower."

"I figured." Pepper looked down at Tony. "You've arranged for their rooms to be made up to their specifications?"

"We've already gone through everything." Tony said with a nod. "We'll be adding a few other things too."

"Of course, I'll assume JARVIS can brief me on everything?" Pepper asked and Tony nodded. "Good, then we should get back to bed, sounds like we have a big day tomorrow." She turned to look at the rest of the Avengers. "Is there anything else you need Tony for?"

"Not that I can think of." Bruce said, looking to the others for confirmation, they all nodded.

"All right then, we're off to bed." Pepper said as she pulled Tony to stand next to her. "Good night everyone, sleep well."

They all wished them a good night as Pepper dragged Tony out of the room and into the elevator without another word. They all went to bed a short time later, also having a big day tomorrow.

When they all woke up, Tony was already in the kitchen. Steve had been the first to enter the kitchen to see Tony and Pepper sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast and joined them. They were joined a little while later by Natasha and Clint, then Bruce, and lastly Thor. It was nearly 9am when Thor arrive, only for him to eat the rest of the food, it was a good thing that everyone else had finished eating by the time the God arrived.

The next hour went by quietly, except when Tony had Told them he wanted Clint, Steve and Natasha to leave their weapons out of the room. Clint and Steve made a big fuss about it, about protection; well Steve argued about protection, Clint just wanted to put an arrow in Loki's eye. Natasha new that arguing with Stark was useless and talked both of them into leaving their weapons in the kitchen, which Tony agreed to. The rest of the morning went buy smoothly until it was interrupted by JARVIS announcing that they had company.

"_Sir, Director Fury has entered the building, along with Agent Hill, several other agents, and the criminal Loki Laufeyson._" JARVIS announced.

"Good, good, bring them right up." Tony said as he finished his coffee and headed out to the living room, followed by everyone else.

They all waited in the living room for the director and God. Tony and Pepper the only ones standing, seeing as it was _their_ tower. It was only a minute of waiting before the elevator dinged, and out walked Fury; in all his stoic faced, black trench coat wearing, eyepatch glory. His hands were clasped behind his back and a scowl was on his face. Fury walked in followed by Maria Hill and a small entourage of faceless SHIELD agents surrounding the war criminal Loki, who, in Tony's opinion, looked like Hell.

"I thought he would have been taller." Pepper whispered to Tony, causing him to smile.

"Put him over there." Fury grouched, motioning for Loki to be moved forward and pointed to one of the couches.

Loki was being moved around by sever polls that looked like the animal snatcher tools that dog catchers used, though Tony could easily see that they were modified to send an electric shock through the loop at the end. Loki also had on large bulky handcuffs and a face mask that worked as a gag, apparently Fury was sick of Loki's lip. From behind Tony, Thor growled at the treatment of his brother, but Tony was quick to put a hand up and motioned for him to stay calm, Tony had this.

"Director." Tony nodded.

"Stark." Fury didn't nod back. "Lets get this over with shall we?"

"Yes, but first, how about we take all that crap off first." Tony said, pointing to Loki, causing the God's eyes, not to mention Fury's eye, to widen. "He can't answer questions if he's gagged and he can't hold his drink if his hands and arms are tied." Tony reasoned. "I promised him a drink. I don't go back on promises that involve alcohol."

Fury studied Tony's face for a second longer than Tony would have liked, so Tony raised an eyebrow at a challenge. Fury looked to Rogers, only to get a shrug, and sighed.

"I don't think that's a wise id-" Hill started but was cut off as Fury motioned for the agents to remove the gag, cuffs, and snatchers. "But Sir-"

"He has a point, Ma'am." Steve said, earning a sigh from Hill.

They waited for Loki to be freed before Tony gives Loki a once over, seeing that the man wasn't in any shape to flee, he felt the half dozen SHIELD agents was overkill.

"You may leave now." Tony said, waving to the agents who just stared at him.

"They stay Stark." Hill said. "Loki is unstable and without the restraints, he's even more deadly. If he decides to attack, we'll need all the help we can get to keep him under control."

"Either they go willingly, or they go unwillingly." Tony said, a serious look on his face. "And you can go with them Agent."

"I'm not going any-"

"Hill, take the agents and wait down in the lobby." Fury ordered.

"Sir?"

"You heard me Hill." Fury glared at her then eyed the room warily. "We are in the home of Stark, if we don't follow instructions, I have no doubt we will literally be thrown out on our asses, if not shot."

"Now now, Nicky," Tony said with a smile. "I wouldn't shoot you, electrocute maybe, but not shoot, that's more your area."

"You dare threaten the director of SHIELD?" Hill said angrily, taking a step forward, only to be shocked as her foot hit the ground. "Ahh!"

"_I would suggest not taking another step Agent Hill._" JARVIS's warning voice filled the room.

Hill looked about as shocked as the Avengers, while Pepper and Tony simply stared at Fury with raised eyebrows, crossed arms, looking unimpressed. Tony leaned against the back of the couch with a smirk and Pepper stood straight with a serious expression. Fury nodded to Hill when she looked at him his shock and grumbled as she and the six agents left for the elevator.

"That wasn't so hard now was it?" Tony said, standing up and clapping his hands as he walked over to the bar. "What's your poison Reindeer Games?"

Everyone looked to Loki who had been watching with an amused expression. He adopted a thoughtful look.

"Whatever that golden liquid was that you were drinking before will be fine." Loki said as he eyed the array of different colored and shaped bottles on the wall behind the bar.

"Good choice." Tony said as he poured two glasses. "Anyone else want some?"

"I'll shall partake in some." Thor said.

Tony grabbed the bottle along with a few extra tumblers and walked back over to the couches and set them on the coffee table, pouring a few glasses of the amber whiskey. Everyone gathered around the couches; Tony and Pepper on one, Fury sitting in a chair to their right, Natasha standing in between the two pieces of furniture. Clint and Bruce sitting across from Fury, Steve standing opposite Natasha. Thor was standing behind the couch Tony and Pepper were on, staring at his brother, and Loki was hesitating to sit in the only unoccupied couch across from Tony & Pepper.

Loki eyed everyone warily, finding the situation odd and wondering what kind of trap could be in play. Just as he was ask, Pepper stood up and rounded the couch to stand in front of Loki. Tony tensed, not knowing what she was doing, but trusted her. He also trusted JARVIS to electrocute the shit out of Loki if the God even _thought_ about touching his Pepper.

Pepper eyed Loki up and down with a hand on her chin. Loki felt odd that the human was looking at him in such a way, wondering what she could want, it almost felt like when his mother would dress him for the royal balls and she would eye him to see if anything was out of place.

Suddenly Pepper stepped closer and raised her hand, slapping him across the face quick and hard. The room fell into a shocked silence as Loki grabbed his face and looked at Pepper like she's crazy. He deduced the instant that he walked into the room that she was the girlfriend Stark had been talking about, and he wondered briefly if she really were mad.

"That," Pepper said, pointing a finger at Loki, then Tony. "Is for throwing _him_ out of our window."

Pepper turned around and walked back to sit on the couch next to Tony. Tony's face was pinched up, obviously trying not to laugh, but he failed and doubled over laughed, holding his stomach so he wouldn't fall off the couch. Pepper tried to keep a straight face, but the corner of her mouth was twitching and she allowed for a smirk to slowly appear on her face. Everyone else was quiet, thought there were a few smirks on Natasha's and Fury's face, having met the red headed PA before.

Then to everyone's surprise, Loki chuckled and sat down.

"You are an interesting woman." Loki said, looking directly at Pepper. "My apologies for throwing your boyfriend out the window, Ma'am." Loki glanced at Tony and smirked. "Though, in my defense, he is undoubtably aggravating."

"Agreed." Pepper smirking back, causing the Avengers minus Tony to chuckle.

"Hey!" Tony said in mock outrage only causing more chuckling. "I'm right here Pepper."

"Yes, yes you are." Pepper said, patting Tony's knee delicately as if he were a small child.

"How about we get down to business?" Fury asked impatiently. "I believe we have met all your conditions Loki. We are in Stark Tower, Stark is going to be asking the questions, and there's your drink."

Loki looked down at the glass that Tony placed on the table in front of him. He slowly picked it up and, seeing that both Stark and Thor were already done with their first portions and Stark was well into his second, he gingerly took a sip. While not nearly as strong as the drink they had in Asgard, Loki found he rather liked the smokey flavor and took a bigger sip before setting it back on the table and leaned back to survey everyone.

No one was looking hostilely at him, which was odd, he had tried to kill everyone in the room, and had even controlled one of them; he would have thought Barton would have his bow notched at all times, but said bow wasn't even in sight, or that Romanoff would have had a hand on her gun, ready to shoot him if he made the wrong move, but it was also strangely absent. Both agents faces a neutral calm. Thor looked rather excited, probably believing that SHIELD would forgive him for some reason. Banner and the Captain were also calm, though both were staring at him with a searching look, glaring right at his eyes as if to find some truth. Stark and his woman, Pepper apparently, were both relaxed and were leaning back against the couch, though Stark was glaring at Fury.

The Director was the only one who seemed agitated. He was leaning forward with his arms on his knees and his head resting on his steepled hands. His one eye was glaring at him and the scowl was fixed on his face; Loki had a hunch it never left. But besides Fury, no one seemed angry or ready to attack him at the drop of a pin in the name of revenge or to _avenge_ anyone.

Loki was at odds with himself, he rather enjoyed the calm atmosphere that the room held, but it didn't make sense. He liked how this meeting was going but he didn't understand why. It was quiet for a moment, before Tony, not the one to allow for silence, broke it.

"So, I hear you want me to ask the questions."

Loki nodded, eyeing Tony warily as the genius sat across from him.

"So I have one question. Who?"

"What are you talking about Stark?" Fury barked out from where he sat.

Loki was now staring at Tony with slightly wide eyes. The Avengers, who were staring at Loki from where they sat and stood were quiet, wondering the answer themselves.

"Who was controlling you Loki?"

"What do you mean?" Loki asked, not sure how the atmosphere had suddenly turned from calm to intense.

"Cut the bull, I know you know what I mean." Tony said, leaning forward and setting his half full tumbler on the table. "In fact, you know that I know that you know what I mean."

"...What?" Steve whispered in confusion.

Loki raised an eyebrow at the confusing idiom, but smiled slightly at the Captain's confusion and how it brought the intense level of the conversation down a bit. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Fury rubbed a hand over his face, obviously losing patience with Stark's attitude.

"It seems that you are more knowledgeable than you seem." Loki said before Fury could start yelling.

"I'm the smartest person on Earth." Tony said with his own raised eyebrow.

"Cocky aren't we?" Loki asked.

"It's been proven. So I'm not cocky, or thinking highly of myself." Tony said. "Just stating a fact. Now answer my question."

"What was it again?" Loki asked, his mask slipping on.

"Who was controlling you?" Tony asked again.

"No one." Loki said emotionlessly.

"Stop lying." Tony said calmly, far to calm for Loki's liking. "We know the scepter wasn't yours and that you were also being controlled."

"Brother-"

"I am _not_ your _brother_!" Loki hissed, cutting off Thor.

"No, you aren't." Tony said. "You are not even Asgardian, so if you're hiding something that you don't want Thor to tell Odin or the people of Asgard, don't worry, everything stays in the tower." Tony looked at Thor, who nodded in agreement.

Loki stared at Tony in confusion. The mortal was the most confusing he'd ever met. How could he know all that he did?

"How?" Loki hissed, dropping all pretenses of trying to hide anything. "How would you know all of this? I myself didn't know about my heritage until one of your Midgardian years ago."

"I told you before, I probably know your past batter than you. I do my research Loks." Tony said with a smirk. "We _Earthlings_ have your entire history written down. In fact we have books upon books of the history of Asgard, though until Hammer Time over here came down, we thought it was all Norse Mythology and made up fairy tails."

"How could you possibly have the history of Asgard written down in Midgard?" Loki asked, looking directly at Tony for an answer.

Tony simply shrugged. "No idea, I just read the eddas books on Norse Mythology. They're mostly poems and stuff, and I mainly read the ones about you and Thor. I have to ask. Did you really give birth to a horse?"

"What?!" Loki asked, sounding completely scandalized. "Y-you people think I-_I_ gave birth to a _horse_!"

"I'll take that as a no." Tony grumbled, sounding disappointed. "I didn't think so, even if you can shape shift, I didn't think you'd stay in the form of a mare for that long."

"Where are the mortals that wrote such lies!" Loki growled. "I will ring their necks."

"Already dead." Tony said. "The books are thousands of years old."

"I shall have Hel make sure they are miserable down in Hell." Loki growled. "For that is surely where they have ended up."

"So you do have a daughter named Hel?" Tony asked.

"Yes, why?" Loki snapped angrily.

"Well, then what about Fenrir and Jormungand?" Tony asked.

"The wolf and the Midgardian Sea Serpent? What about th-" Loki started and then his eyes widened. "You think _they_ are my children?"

"Well... yeah." Tony said with a shrug.

"They are not." Loki deadpanned, trying to control his anger. "Are there anymore beasts your people believe are my children?"

"Um... What about Sleipnir?" Bruce asked, having read only a little about Loki.

"He his Odin's most prized Stallion and has eight legs." Loki ground out. "And _not_ my son."

"What about Váli and Narfi?" Tony asked curiously.

"Finally, something that is correct." Loki sneered. "They indeed are my sons. It seems that your myths have some, if only a little, truth to them."

"So it seems." Tony said, smiling at Loki's reactions, trying not to burst out laughing again. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Clint was trying to do the same and Bruce was covering a smirk with his hand, both enjoying Loki's outbursts. "Now that that's over with, lets get back to my question. Who was controlling you."

"It is none of your concern." Loki said, admitting his lack of control.

"Oh it is." Tony said, smiling at Fury's wide eyes, he knew this changed everything.

"Bro-Loki," Thor began, correcting himself at Loki's glare. "If you tell us whom was controlling you, you could be pardoned from all your crimes here on Midgard. You could even return home to Asgard and possibly be pardoned there."

"Highly doubtful." Loki sneered. "Your Allfather would surely see me hang before I would be pardoned."

"I would not allow him." Thor promised.

"We shall see." Loki said. "It does not matter, the one who controls the scepter is more powerful than I, more powerful than your team of misplaced heros. He wants the Tesseract and he shall have it, even if he must come to _Earth_ himself."

"Who is it?" Tony asked.

"I only refer to him as The Other, for that is how I know him." Loki said. "I no not the ends of his power, only that he has never displayed his full strength to me, and what I have seen is truly horrifying. He could destroy your puny planet easily."

"Then why does he need the Tesseract if he has all this power himself." Fury asked.

"You would have to ask him, I did not." Loki snarked. "I did what I was told and didn't ask questions I did not need to know the answer too."

"Where did you meet such a being?" Thor asked.

"The abyss you threw me into." Loki hissed. "You thought I dead, but no, you sent me to a place worth than death."

"I am truly sorry Brother." Thor said, looking like a kicked puppy.

"I am not your brother." Loki said, but not nearly as heated as before.

"All right, not that this isn't all terribly sad and what not, but I don't believe this for a second." Fury said. "How do we know he's not just making this up? Where did you come up with the idea that he was being controlled in the first place?"

"JARVIS?" Tony said, looking up at the ceiling.

Loki looked up at the ceiling as well, wondering what a 'Jarvis' was, or maybe there was a person hiding somewhere?

"_Of course Sir._" JARVIS said out of nowhere, causing Loki's eyes to widen, and look around for a body to accompany the voice.

Suddenly there was a see through screen shining up from the coffee table. Everyone looked to it as Tony waved away several data graphs and bars until only the pictures from the night before were left.

"Pretty eyes Stark, but what do they have to do with this?" Fury asked impatiently.

"Everything." Tony said, enlarging the first image. "This is a picture of Barton's eyes after he was hit with the scepter."

The first picture of bright cyan blue eyes enlarged.

"After Romanoff hit him on the head, they turned back to their normal brown. As all of us can see." Everyone turned to Clint, who stood stone faced.

"And?" Fury asked. "Who's eyes are the rest of them?"

"Loki's." Tony said, pulling up the first set of cyan eyes. "This is Loki's eyes when he took over Barton, and this was his eyes when he was talking to me on the Helicarrier. And this one is of when Loki was fighting Thor."

"And?" Fury asked again, not noticing there was one final picture. "This means what? They have the same eyes, It just means that Barton's eyes became the same color as Loki's."

"Not exactly." Tony said, enlarging the final picture. "This is Loki's eyes after Hulk threw him around and smashed him into my floor."

Tony pointed to the hole and Bruce blushed again. Fury looked from the hole to the picture, seeing the emerald green and not the bright blue he had been expecting. He looked at Loki and then settled his eyes on Tony.

"His eyes now are also green and not blue." Tony finished.

"And you're positive?" Fury asked seriously, understanding the implication.

"100%" Tony said, just as serious.

Fury stood up, looking at the before and after pictures of Loki's eyes. He stood there for a minute before turning back to Tony.

"I trust your tower is safe." Fury said.

"Safer than your Helicarrier." Tony scoffed.

"I will be back after verifying this information." Fury said and turned, walking toward the elevator and leaving.

As soon as the elevator doors dinged closed, Tony let out a breath and collapsed back against the couch, running a hand over his face.

"Um... what just happened?" Steve asked confused.

"I think... Fury sort of believes us, but has to double check first." Bruce said.

"Yes, I got that." Steve said. "But, why is Loki still here, I would think that he wouldn't want Loki to stay here."

"He probably doesn't, but I wasn't going to let him take him." Tony said. "Loki's innocent, and even if Fury finds our evidence truthful, he wont take kindly to that and _coerce_ Loki into telling him everything he can. Trust me, I know every secret SHIELD's ever tried to hide, and there are a _lot_ of them."

"You really think he'd..." Steve tapered off.

"I don't think Captain, I _know._" Tony said. "SHIELD isn't exactly the nicest organization. You want a goody-two-shoes government organization, try the FBI, or better yet, the CIA, even they are nicer."

"You've hacked the FBI and CIA?" Clint asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Pfft, I wouldn't even call it hacking, because that means that I would have had to put forward effort." Tony scoffed. "But yes, I have access to their information."

"Excuse me." Loki spoke up from his spot on the couch. "What exactly am I supposed to do? Am I free to go?"

"No, but you will be staying here." Tony said, then looked at Pepper. "If that's okay with you."

"It's fine my me, you know how I hate injustice." Pepper said, giving Loki a warm smile.

"Why?" Loki asked confused. "Why would you help prove my innocence?"

"Because your innocent, duh." Tony said. "You didn't do anything, why should you be some evil alien's fall guy?"

"But you don't know me, you could have just as easily sent the information to SHIELD and left it there, why go so far as to let me stay here?" Loki said, looking around the room he had helped damage only a few days ago.

"Because you deserve a chance." Tony said, standing up. "I would hope that if I were falsely imprisoned in a foreign country, let alone a foreign planet, someone would help prove my innocence."

With that Tony walked over to the elevator and waited for the door to open.

"Oh and JARVIS?" Tony called out as the metal doors opened and he stepped in. "Make up a room for Reindeer Games."

"_Already done Sir._" JARVIS said, causing Loki to jump and look around the room again.

"Hey Pep, introduce Loks to J." Tony laughed as the doors slid closed.

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**E/N~ Okay, So First Thing I Want To Say Is That Yes, I Did Watch The Trailer For Thor 2 & No, I Didn't Get The Idea Of Pepper Slapping Loki From That. Though It Is An Amazing Coincidence Huh? I'm Really Thinking I'm A Little Psychic! & It Kinda Makes It Cannon For Someone To Slap Loki Huh? ;P **

**Second, What'd You All Think? Good? You Like The Long Chapter? Some People Wanted Longer Chapters, Some Didn't Seem To Care, & Some Even Thought I Should Do Whatever I Wanted, I Kinda Did Both The First And Last, Because I Want Whatever You Readers Want! See How That Works? dX**

**Third, Yes, I Did Notice That The Preview From The Previous Chapter Is Slightly Different From What I Have In This Chapter, But As I Started Writing That Part Out, I Realized The Setting Of Everyone Didn't Work Out That Well, So I Changed It. Artistic License & All That. ;p**

**Fourth(& Lastly), Please Review! I Love Getting Reviews! They're GREAT! I Got **_**17**_** Reviews For The Last Chapter! I Am So Stoked! That's The Most I've Gotten Yet For One Chapter! Lets Try To Break That Record With This One! Also, We've Surpassed All My Other Stories In Reviews! This One Has 164 & My Other Story DIAFV Has 162! I'm So Happy! XD **

**Thanx For Reading Everyone! X3 **


	23. Genius Trickers, Every World Has One

**A/N~ Hey Y'all, I Know, I'm Late, Again. But I Have A Good Reason, My Internet Went Out, & So I Couldn't Post Tuesday Nor Wednesday. & So I Decided To Add To This Chapter, & Now I'm Finished So Here's The Next Chapter. Again I've Amazed Myself, This One Is 7k! I'm Just Going Up & Up. XD **

**Well, Because This Chapter Is So Long, I May Have Gone Off The Subject, But By The End I'm Where I Want To Be, So Forgive Any Randomness. It's All For The Better & Will Take Effect In Later Chapters. **

**Also, It May Seem Like I'm Setting Up For A FrostIron Story, But I'm Not, It's Just They're So Alike & All, I Think They Should Be Friends… I'm Probably Giving A Spoiler Here, But Yeah, They'll Get A Long FANTASTICALLY In This. Like Best Buds. XD**

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**& To The Reviewer **_Sleepyreader319_**: Sorry I Didn't Reply, But You Seem To Have Disabled Your PMs. But To Answer Your Question, Yes, They Will Be Appearing Soon, Not In This Chapter, But Maybe, Though Probably Not, In The Next Chapter, But Soon! I Promise! & Thanx For The Review! I'm Glad You Like My Story! X3**

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**Warning~ …Lots Of Feels? Maybe? Well Lots Of Talk About Tony & Why He Does Things. So Yeah, Not How To Classify That. **

**Disclaimer~ Mine? You Think This Is Mine… LIES! LIES I TELL YOU! It's Not Mine… Though When Loki Says That Line About Cat's Live At The End. I Made That Up Years Ago & Have Been Wanting To Use It SO Bad. So That's Mine. XD **

**On To The Story! ENJOY! XD**

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_**Ch.23**_

_**Genius Trickers, Every World Has One**_

_**~7,275~**_

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"_Why?" Loki asked confused. "Why would you help prove my innocence?"_

"_Because your innocent, duh." Tony said. "You didn't do anything, why should you be some evil alien's fall guy?"_

"_But you don't know me, you could have just as easily sent the information to SHIELD and left it there, why go so far as to let me stay here?" Loki said, looking around the room he had helped damage only a few days ago. _

"_Because you deserve a chance." Tony said, standing up. "I would hope that if I were falsely imprisoned in a foreign country, let alone a foreign planet, someone would help prove my innocence." _

_With that Tony walked over to the elevator and waited for the door to open. _

"_Oh and JARVIS?" Tony called out as the metal doors opened and he stepped in. "Make up a room for Reindeer Games." _

"_Already done Sir." JARVIS said, causing Loki to jump and look around the room again. _

"_Hey Pep, introduce Loks to J." Tony laughed as the doors slid closed._

Tony took the elevator directly to his lab, trusting JARVIS to alert him if anything were to happen. He was sure that he'd just left the room to an awkward silence. When he reach his lab, he almost had JARVIS pull up the security feed for his living room, but decided he needed to work and laughing at their awkwardness wouldn't help. He told JARVIS to save it for him to watch later.

Tony pulled out his destroyed and mangled suits. He had begun working on them before he left to Malibu, where he had a few extras at his home, but he wanted to keep them there, in case of an emergency so he needed to finish repairs on his Mark VI and Mark VII. The M. VI was far less damaged that the M. VII, but both were still in dire straits, and he wanted to start on the M. VIII as soon as possible.

Bringing up the M. VI, It only took Tony an hour to get it up and running per near perfect order, while adding a few upgrades that the M. VII had, skipping the spinning rims all together. He was a few hours into working on the M. VII when JARVIS interrupted his montage of work.

"_Sir._" JARVIS said, turning down the blasting rock music.

"Yeah J?" Tony responded, his nose still in the wiring of the Suits left leg.

"_Miss Potts has asked that you come up for lunch._" JARVIS said smoothly. "_I took the liberty of ordering pizza from one of the few still open pizzerias in the city._"

"How long?" Tony asked, coming up for air and setting his soldering tool down.

"_With the roads the way they still are, the pizza's should arrive in roughly 25 minutes._" JARIVS said, then added. "_Just enough time for you to take a shower and change close._"

"Of course, did that suggestion come from Pepper?" Tony asked with a knowing smile as he stood up and put away some of the things on his desk.

"_She knows you all too well Sir._" JARVIS replied.

Tony headed up to his room for a shower. He changed into something not grease covered and headed back to the living room, it was nearing 2:30pm when Tony walked into a room filled with super heros + one ex-super villain. Everyone had moved to different spots, Natasha and Clint sitting next to each other on a far couch, glancing up every once and awhile to make sure Loki hadn't taken someone's head off or set anything on fire. Steve and Bruce were in the kitchen, talking softly while drinking from their mugs; them too glancing up a few times to check on Loki. This wasn't that surprising, after all, a few days ago Loki had attacked them all.

The surprising thing in the room was that Loki was sitting calmly on a love seat by himself, Thor standing slightly behind him with a smile on his face, and Pepper sitting across from the two on her own love seat, a soft smile and a rapt look on her face as she listened to Loki. From what Tony could hear, Loki was telling her a story, one of his time in Asgard, Thor was obviously part of it, seeing as he smiled and laughed, adding his own two cents every so often.

No one had noticed Tony come in, seeing as he had opted to take the stairs instead of the elevator, so Tony stood there, leaning against the door for several minutes, just listening to the story. Tony had a hard time not just bursting out laughing. The story, it seemed, was a tail of when Thor and Loki were forced to dress up as women to try and get Thor's hammer back. He'd missed the first half of the story, so he didn't know how Thor losing his hammer was brought up, or how it was possible, but at one particular part in the story, Loki used a little bit of the magic he still had and conjured up an image of both himself and Thor in their disguises. Pepper giggled and Thor blushed while Loki smirked. Tony could see the other's huff a laugh, or smirk in amusement.

From where he was standing, Tony could only just see Thor and Loki's images floating above Loki's palm. Tony took a deep breath, trying not to laugh, but as Loki twirled them around, Tony got a frontal view and couldn't hold back anymore. He burst out laughing, doubling over and holding his stomach, his eyes skewered shut as he couldn't control himself.

Every face whipped around at him, Natasha drew her gun and Clint his bow. Rogers and Bruce startled and Rogers even dropped his mug, jumping into battle position. Thor spun a the loud laugh, but didn't reach for his hammer and Loki, dropped the images of himself and Thor in drag to spin around in surprise. Pepper simply looked around Loki to see who was laughing, though she had a pretty good idea.

Tony couldn't stop laughing, the image of the masculine God of thunder and the devious God of lies and mischief both dressed in drag was too much for the genius. Tony was barely able to stagger over to the love seat where Pepper sat and collapse next to her. Every time Tony tried to calm down, he'd look up and see the two God's who were looking at him as if they were worried for his sanity and it only caused him to laugh more. It took him nearly an entire five minutes before he was able to look at the Gods without uncontrollably laughing again.

"Oh-oh God that was a good laugh." Tony said, still slightly breathless.

"Tony, that was mean." Pepper scolded, but there was a small smile on her face to let him know she wasn't angry.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Tony said waving his hand and looking at the Gods. "So what else have I missed? You know, besides the reason you and your brother dressed up in drag?"

Loki simply stared at Tony, wondering not for the first time if the man had all his mental faculties. Thor was smiling at him, but had a blush on his face, obviously a little embarrassed at the tale. Tony looked over at Pepper.

"Do I even want to know how that story started?" Tony asked with an eyebrow raised.

"It's a long story." Pepper said in response.

"So that's a no." Tony said, then looked up at the ceiling. "Hey J, when's the food getting here?"

"_It should be arriving any minute Sir._" JARVIS answered.

"So you all seem to be getting a long perfectly fine." Tony asked, looking around at the calm atmosphere that surrounded the room. "You guys call a truce?"

"Something like that." Pepper said. "Loki apologized and offered a little retribution for Clint. Everyone kinda relaxed and agreed on a truce after that."

Tony raised his eyebrow in question. "Retribution?"

"Clint punched Loki." Pepper said with a small smile.

"What?" Tony asked with both eyebrows now raised and looked from Clint, who had a satisfied smirk, to Loki, who was blank faced and had no mark of such an attack. "And I missed it? Ah man!"

"_I have it recorded and saved per Miss. Potts' Sir._" JARVIS informed him. "_It is ready for you to watch any time._"

"Yeah, but it's not the same as actually being there to watch it first hand." Tony pouted. "'S not fair."

Before Tony could truly get into a pouting mood JARVIS, true to his word, announced the pizza man's arrival in the elevator.

Tony got up and at the same time Steve left the kitchen, pulling out his wallet. Tony eyed the man out of time and stopping him mid step.

"Hold it Spangles." Tony said, stopping in front of the hero. "Everything in this tower is payed for my me."

"It's fine Tony, we ordered a lot because of Thor and Loki." Steve said, pulling out a credit card Tony was sure he'd gotten from SHIELD. "We can help pay."

"First, JARVIS has everything under control." Tony said, "Whenever something is ordered, it's automatically charged to my Take-Out account. You did do that right J?"

"_Of course Sir._" JARVIS answered. "_It is protocol after all._"

"Right see? And second," Tony said as he snatched the card from Steve's hand and waving it in his face. "do you even know how to use this?"

"That's what I thought." Tony said, seeing Steve blush in answer To Tony's question. "If you need anything while you're staying here just have JARVIS pay for it with my card. If it seems questionable, JARVIS'll tell me and I'll either accept or decline it. If I decline it, I'll come and tell you why or ask why you need it."

Tony said, throwing the card back at Steve and walking over to the elevator, pulling out his own wallet. The door opened and Tony grabbed the half dozen boxes from the man inside. Tony threw the man a C-note before saying thanks as JARVIS closed the doors. Tony walked to the table in the kitchen and set the boxes down.

"What'd you order J?" Tony said, opening up one of the boxes to find a plain pepperoni pizza.

"_I ordered to plain pepperoni, one sausage and bacon, one Hawaiian, one four cheese and one with pepperoni, pesto, and black olive._" JARVIS listed off. "_There are several liters of soda in the fridge as well as plates and napkins on the counter._"

"Sweet." Tony said, grabbing himself and Pepper plates of the pizza and sat back down next to her.

Everyone was eating peacefully and surprisingly it seemed Loki and Thor were enjoying their first time trying the cheesy dish. Once everyone had finished their food, except Loki and Thor; it seemed Gods had an infinite appetite, Tony turned to Pepper again.

"So did you give Loki the grand tour?" He asked, sipping the glass of soda he'd gotten himself.

"Well, I showed him his room if that's what you mean." Pepper answered. "Pretty much everything else that would need to be shown is going to be remodeled, so why bother?"

"Smart thinking." Tony said, kissing Pepper on the forehead and standing up. "Well, now that I'm fed, I'm going back down to the workshop. Almost got both my suits working."

"Made sure you come up for dinner, or I'm sending someone down there to drag you up!" Pepper called after her eccentric boyfriend, who just smiled at her as the elevator doors closed.

"If I may ask, what draws you to him?" Loki asked abruptly, setting his plate down. "He doesn't seem all that enjoyable to be around."

"Sometimes that's true." Pepper chuckled, noting that everyone in the room was staring at her, obviously interesting in her answer. "Half of the time, Tony's locked down in his lab, blasting music louder than a parade, working on things I have no chance of understanding. And the other half Tony's at press conferences and galas, or at Stark industries, or being Iron Man. He has very little time to actually be himself or pay attention to anyone."

"Then why be with someone who doesn't have any time for you?" Steve asked.

"Because, a long time ago Tony told me that I was the only person he had, and when he said that, I also realized he was the only person I had too." Pepper said, a soft smile on her face. "And Tony Stark, whom everyone thinks is brash, self-obsessed, rude, heartless, and selfish, is actually the most caring, selfless, heartfelt, loving person I know."

Everyone stared at Pepper in wonder as she spoke so emotionally about her boss/boyfriend. Steve wondered if they were thinking about the same person, sure he didn't know everything about the genius, but from what he had seen, he couldn't quite believe the woman in front of him.

"And it's true that he is self-obsessed, but not in the way everyone thinks." Pepper said with a now sad smile on her face.

"What do you mean?" Thor asked in confusion.

"Well, when says Tony's self-obsessed, they mean that he only thinks about himself and that he only cares about himself, that's only half true." Pepper said with a sad look in her eyes. "When Tony thinks about himself, it's usually in a negative light. He obsesses over everything he does because he doesn't want to mess up again, he's careful about who he does business with because he doesn't trust many people. So people the general public think of his as selfish because they only see him turning down these contracts that could save lives, not taking into account that the other side of things."

"I'm sorry, Miss Potts, but I have a hard time believing all of this." Steve said. "From what I've seen so far, Tony's pretty selfish, he hacked into SHIELD's secure files just for the kick of it and to prove he could."

Much to everyone's surprise, Pepper just chuckled.

"That does sound like Tony." She said. "I can't say for sure, but I can guess why he would do something like that."

"And?" Clint asked, interested in what type of excuse the woman could come up with for Tony's actions.

"Well, Tony seems selfish, because he's actually really unselfish." Pepper said.

"What?" Clint asked in confusion. "That makes no sense."

"If you think about it, it does." Pepper said. "Tony really has no self reservation. The main reason he flew that nuke into that portal was because he didn't want anyone else to get hurt. I'm sure that Thor could have flew into the sky to take it into the portal, but Tony didn't want even Thor, someone he doesn't really know, to get hurt, nor does he want to leave it to him incase something goes wrong."

"So it's about control." Natasha said. "He didn't want to leave it to Thor because he didn't trust him to get it done right."

"I doubt that." Pepper said, shaking her head. "While he doesn't trust most of you, he more than likely didn't want to leave it to Thor because if something did go wrong and it didn't make it into the portal, Thor would have blamed himself along with others blaming him. Tony didn't want Thor to deal with that. Tony's used to being blamed for things that aren't his fault, and while he probably hates the idea of having more blood on his hand, he would prefer it on his shoulders than someone else."

"But what about hacking SHIELD, I don't understand why he'd do something like that." Clint said.

"Now that I'm not really surprised about. Neither of us trust SHIELD nor Fury." Pepper said.

"What? Why don't you trust SHIELD?" Steve asked.

"Well, for one, it was founded by Howard." Pepper said, and seeing that Steve was about to say something, Pepper interrupted. "Now I know you were friends with Tony's dad Steve, but he was a prick. They didn't get along, and Tony hates him, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't bring him up around Tony."

Steve looked like he was about to protest, but at Pepper's glare, he simply nodded.

"Thank you." Pepper said before continuing. "Second, Fury is one of the least trustworthy people Tony knows, The man is a liar and a snake. After Tony came out about being Iron Man, he had his tech department hack JARVIS while he was vulnerable."

"What do you mean, vulnerable?" Bruce asked confused.

"Well, a few years ago, before our large scale Arc Reactor blew up Tony was attacked in his home. A trusted family friend who had semi access to JARVIS hacked him and put him out of commission for a while, afterwards, before Tony could completely fix JARVIS, Fury hacked him and shut him off for a little while."

"_I was offline for exactly 21 minutes and 43 seconds._" JARVIS injected. "_It was quite unsettling not to be able to assist Mr. Stark._"

"Yes, I can bet." Pepper smiled up at the AI. "Anyway, durning the time that JARVIS was offline, SHIELD tried to hack into Tony's personal satellite and steal his weapons secrets, luckily the satellite has it's own separate firewalls that they weren't able to get though."

"So he hacked SHIELD in search of vengeance?" Thor asked.

"Oh no, Tony's not petty like that." Pepper said. "He probably did it because he doesn't trust SHIELD at all. As you saw with the nuke and the tesseract weapons, that distrust is deserved. He probably wanted to make sure SHIELD wasn't doing anything bad, which of course they were."

"You know about the Phase 2 weapons?" Bruce asked surprised.

"Yeah, most things like that are emailed to me via JARVIS incase something happens to Tony." Pepper said. "I may not understand all the scientific stuff, but I can tell that Phase 2 is dangerous and unwanted, as well as unneeded."

"By the way, what are you going to do with the Tesseract now that you're not taking Loki back to Asgard?" Bruce asked Thor.

"I am unsure." Thor said. "The Tesseract is powerful and should not be left on Midgard. I do not trust the director of SHIELD with such power."

"I agree. Wait. Where is it anyway?" Steve asked. "I don't remember seeing it with us when we brought Loki in."

"_It is tucked away in a safe place Captain Rogers._" JARVIS answered. "_Sir will not allow it to fall into the wrong hands again._"

"Stark has it?" Natasha asked irritably.

"Is it safe for Tony to have it?" Steve asked worriedly.

"I don't think Tony would endanger us by tampering with it." Bruce said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than the others.

"Oh yes, just like he wouldn't try to bring out the Hulk just for laughs?" Steve asked sarcastically and Bruce ducked his head slightly to hide his sheepish smile.

"Does Stark even know how to contain the cube?" Clint asked.

"There are few ways to contain the Tesseract with your Midgardian technology." Thor boomed. "My brother would know the best way to do so."

"Hey Loki, how-" Steve started to ask, but stopped when he saw that Loki was no longer sitting in his seat. "Where'd Loki go?" Steve asked, slightly panicked.

"_No need to panic Captain Rogers, Mr. Laufeyson is currently in the elevator._" JARVIS said.

"Why's he in the elevator?" Steve asked.

And at the same time Clint said, "When did he get up and leave?"

"_He seems to be headed to Mr. Starks Lab, for what purpose he did not say._" JARVIS said. "_Though he did leave the moment I informed you that Mr. Stark was in possession of the Tesseract. He seems to be bothered it._"

"Bothered? Why would he be bothered by Stark having the Cube?" Clint asked.

"How'm I supposed to know?" Steve asked. "It's not like I can read Loki's mind."

"Maybe he wants it back." Natasha said, making the others stare at her with wide eyes.

"_I have been ordered to electrocute Mr. Laufeyson if he is to step out of line in any way._" JARVIS informed them.

"Does Loki know that?" Bruce asked.

"_No,"_ JARVIS answered with a hint of amusement. "_I don't believe he does._"

"Um... Isn't anyone else unnerved at how Loki was able to leave the room without" Clint demanded, looking around the room as if Loki would just appear out of know where.

"My brother is very silent, he was once called the ghost trickster when we were children, because he can be so quiet." Thor said, sounding very proud. "If he does not want you to hear him, you wont."

"So he can just come and go as he pleases?" Natasha asked.

"That is a bit creepy." Steve said.

"Is that one of his powers?" Pepper asked. "Or is that his magic?"

"He can use his magic to teleport, but it is costly and tires him out." Thor said thoughtfully. "He is silent from his many years of training as a child."

"Training for what?" Pepper asked curiously.

"His pranks." Thor grinned. "As a child, he surely lived up to his moniker of God of Mischief."

"Oh great." Natasha nearly groaned. "We already have to put up with Stark, now we have Loki to deal with."

"What do you mean Tasha?" Clint asked.

"Well, Tony's a little bit of a prankster too." Pepper said with a sheepish smile.

"That is another similarity Friend Stark and my Brother share." Thor murmured to himself, though with his loud voice, everyone heard it clearly.

"What do you mean 'another similarity' Thor?" Steve asked.

"You're right." Pepper said, agreeing with Thor.

"Then you've noticed it too?" Thor asked.

"Yeah, It's kinda hard not too." Pepper said, ignoring the looks the two were getting from the others. "They are so similar."

"What are you two talking about?" Bruce asked, confused.

"Wait, you two aren't talking about Stark and Loki are you?" Steve asked bewildered.

"Yeah." Pepper answered. "They're so alike it's almost scary."

"Agreed." Thor nodded. "They are almost like each other from different realms."

"Only Tony wasn't controlled into trying to take over Asgard." Pepper said and Thor nodded again.

"Hold on a second." Clint said, holding his hands up to stop anyone from talking. "How on Earth are Loki and Stark similar?"

"I agree. I see they may have the prankster thing in common, but that's it." Natasha said with a scowl.

Pepper and Thor looked at each other. They could see the similarities easily, how could the others not. Was it because they didn't know them well enough? Pepper knew Tony like that back of her hand, and Thor knew Loki like he did his hammer, so maybe the similarities were just obvious to them. They both turned to the others, and started listing off details the tow shared.

"Like you said, they're both pranksters." Pepper started.

"They are both sneaky and undetectable when they want to be." Thor continued. "Friend Stark was able to sneak up on us while Brother was telling the story and none of us knew of his arrival."

"From what I've read of the Norse Mythology, Loki has some major father issues, and we all know Tony does too." Pepper listed.

"They are both exceedingly intelligent compared to those around them." Thor said. "On Asgard, Loki was near the smartest of us all, though he did not use them to help but for his mischief."

"And from what I can tell of Loki, they've both endured great hardships that tested their moral compass." Pepper said. "The only difference I see, is that Tony braved though his and came out a better man, while Loki has yet to emerge from his."

"They are both quick to cover up their true emotions and deflect away from them using their words." Thor said thoughtfully.

"They're both sarcastic as Hell." Pepper said with a small smirk, which morphed into a sad smile and looks to Steve then Thor. "They both look up to someone they think they can never live up too, but try their hardest to do so when they are fine the way they are."

"Loki has always tried to gain acceptance though his magic and his intellect, and in our realm magic and seen as lesser than brute strength and courage, and his tries have failed him." Thor sadly looks back at Pepper to fill in the rest, as he didn't know Tony all that well.

"As does Tony with his mind and inventions." Pepper agrees. "Though Tony never feels he's gained acceptance because every time he does something good he's ripped down for it by the media and even some of his friends have left him or insulted him, spurring him to find acceptance in other places."

"They do not trust easily." Thor says sadly and looks guilty. "Because they have been betrayed by those they trusted and thought trusted them back."

Pepper nods grimly. "They have both done horrible things and wish for forgiveness, but believe they will never get it because they think they don't deserve it and think their crimes are beyond forgiving. No matter what they do."

Thor nodded sadly and looked at Pepper. Both seemed near tears as they thought about the one their cared for. They were so alike, so sad and miserable and fate seemed to pick them for no reason, it was unfair.

"He is the best friend I could have." Thor and Pepper spoke together, their thoughts on the men they could never live without.

~POV CHANGE(Sorta from Loki's POV)POV CHANGE~

Loki sat there, animatedly telling the tale of how Thor lost Mjölnir. He couldn't even tell you how it had started; one moment he was awkwardly sitting alone with the Avengers and the woman named Pepper, though he did think it was a nickname, and the next Pepper was asking him loads of questions about Asgard and his parents and Thor. Then Thor, being his normal story loving self, began telling the woman all about him and their adventures, most of which were filled with how Thor had saved Loki, so he decided to get some payback.

Using a little bit of magic, some of his last reserves, Loki conjured up a picture of Thor and him in their guises. He did have to admit, it was amusing to see the Avengers try to hold in their laughs at seeing them in dresses, but he was just as shocked as them when they heard the boisterous laugh from behind them. He dropped the image in his hand and twirled to see Stark bent over at the waist, unable to catch his breath due to his laughing.

He didn't know when Stark had entered the room, he didn't even feel his presence, which was odd, considering he was a master at finding and noticing people. Perhaps he was losing his touch, the Widow had snuck up on his too. Loki noticed the Avengers were just as shocked as him, though Pepper wasn't, probably used to Stark suddenly popping up unexpectedly.

"Oh-oh God that was a good laugh." Tony said, seemingly still trying to catch hi breath.

"Tony, that was mean." Pepper scolded the man, but there was a small smile on her face, betraying her anger.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Tony said waving his hand, then looking to Thor before looking at Loki. "So what else have I missed? You know, besides the reason you and your brother dressed up in drag?"

Loki stared at Tony, wondering not for the first time if the man had all his mental faculties. Not surprising to Loki, Thor was smiling at the man, but had a blush on his face, obviously a little embarrassed at the tale. That did surprise Loki, though only a little bit.

Loki ignored the inane babble that began, but he kept his eyes on Stark, the man was an enigma, a puzzle he had yet to collect all the pieces, and the picture was lost until he found those missing pieces.

"Clint punched Loki." Pepper said, bringing Loki out of his musings.

He was able to put up a blank mask to replace in thoughtful one, he didn't need them believing he was thinking up some plan to escape or kill them all in their sleep. Not that he could with how exhausted he was. Besides, JARVIS, an AI; Artificial Intelligence. He believed Pepper had called the voice, wouldn't allow him to harm anyone in the house, he had gotten the threat when he had visited his new room.

"_I have it recorded and saved per Miss. Potts' Sir._" JARVIS informed him. "_It is ready for you to watch any time._"

Loki's eyes raised a fraction, he had suspected the AI was able to watch everything that was going on, or else he wouldn't be able to help Stark as his electronic butler, as JARVIS described himself, but he recorded everything? That was new to him, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that, though he figured he'd have to get use to it fast or risk being taken back to that flying SHIELD base. He nearly shuddered at that thought.

Brought out of his thoughts again by the man he was staring at standing up, Loki followed him as he walked to the Captain and waving a small card in the man's face. He was talking about if they needed anything to have JARVIS pay for it.

_Well, that as rather kind of him._ Loki thought, wondering if there was any motive behind the kindness.

He watched as Stark walked over to the elevators, grabbing boxes form the man inside and throwing a piece of paper at him before heading to the kitchen. He was rather amazed at the dish that was set before him by his brother. Stark said one was sausage and bacon and the other Pepperoni. He had learned what the items were and what pizza was from his time on Midgard and though the Hawk, but he had never tried it due to his state of semi-incapacitation. He was surprised to find he liked the greasy food. It was delicious, he'd never had anything like it; the melted cheese mixed well with the cooked bread and the meats on top were spiced perfectly and the red sauce was perfect and didn't overtake the other ingredients. He highly approved the food and got seconds and even thirds, wanting to try all the different toppings. He found the slice with greed sauce, pepperoni and olives to be his favorite. He favored the green sauce over the red and the olives gave the cheese a hint of sweetness that made his mouth water for more.

After they had all the others finished eating, except him and Thor, because they were Gods and needed more food than the mortals, Stark left, with a little banter from Pepper. Stark seemed like he was married to his work, he was sarcastic, stubborn, and annoying, he didn't understand how Pepper could stand the man.

"If I may ask, what draws you to him?" Loki asked, voicing his thoughts. "He doesn't seem all that enjoyable to be around."

He was surprised to get a laugh in response

"Sometimes that's true." Pepper chuckled before continuing. "Half of the time, Tony's locked down in his lab, blasting music louder than a parade, working on things I have no chance of understanding. And the other half Tony's at press conferences and galas, or at Stark industries, or being Iron Man. He has very little time to actually be himself or pay attention to anyone."

"Then why be with someone who doesn't have any time for you?" Steve asked.

"Because, a long time ago Tony told me that I was the only person he had, and when he said that, I also realized he was the only person I had too." Pepper said, a soft smile on her face, as if lost in some far off memory. "And Tony Stark, whom everyone thinks is brash, self-obsessed, rude, heartless, and selfish, is actually the most caring, selfless, heartfelt, loving person I know."

Hearing her talk about Stark with such emotion filled words, Loki couldn't help but feel jealous of the love and understanding the man had. He didn't know how lucky he was. He listened enrapt to Pepper as she talked about her man and his reasons for doing the things he did. His distrust towards SHIELD was not surprising, after hearing what that Director had done. It was a little surprising to hear that he wouldn't have wanted any pain to befall his brother and would rather take it upon himself, but he felt he would do the same, despite his feeling towards Thor.

Then the topic of the Tesseract was brought up. He too had wondered where the cube had been taken after his capture. He had figured that SHIELD had taken it back into their custody, but when the AI informed them that Stark had it, he began to wonder, and surprisingly, worry. So he slipped out of the room without anyone noticing and went to the elevator.

"AI, please take me to Starks' Lab." Loki asked, not sure how to operate the high-tech elevator.

"_Of course Mr. Laufeyson._" JARVIS answered. "_However, I must warn you, Mr. Stark does not appreciate visitors._"

"He shall let me in." Loki commented.

JARVIS didn't respond as the elevator started to move downward and Loki delved into thought over the man he was going to see.

Tony Stark wasn't a normal Midgardian, he had felt it in their first meeting when he was taken into SHIELD's custody just before Thor came to Midgard. He could sense something was off with him. He noticed it again when the man came to talk to him and ask him _why_. Stark was smarter than anyone he had met, smarter than any of the scientist he'd captured while, not himself, nor before then. Dr. Selvig and Jane were smart, genius' on Midgard, but they were children compared to the intellect inside Stark's head. He was by far the smartest person he'd ever known, in any world he'd ever been too: the man had the right to brag.

However; it wasn't his brains that made him stand out to the God, it was... something else. Something he couldn't put his finger on. But he knew on instinct that Stark was different than them all. He hadn't met someone like Stark before, and it intrigued him, the puzzle was very intricate indeed.

He wondered why Stark would keep the Tesseract. Sure it was a powerful energy source that could run the entire planet, but it had also been the reason said planet has been attacked by an alien army. He was worried because power corrupted, he knew this first hand after being king for a short time before being tossed into the abyss he met The Other, and Stark may have already power on Midgard in the form of his reactor, which had a surprisingly similar glow to the Cube, but the kind of power the Cube had readily available was nothing compared to it and what was gainable on Midgard. And with Starks intelligence, it would be easy to succeed where he had failed.

It wasn't long before the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Loki looked up from his thoughts to see a hallway leading down to a dead end leading to another hall, forming a T. At the end of the hall was a thick glass door with even thinker glass window. Inside he could see tables filled with pieces of metal, blinking lights, small and large machines he could never guess the purpose of in a millennia, robots moving around grabbing things of sweeping the floor, and in the middle of it all was Stark, pointing the robot that was sweeping the floor. The bot bowed it's claw-like head in what seemed to be sadness at the reprimand Stark was giving it. _Another AI_? Loki thought, looking at the display of emotion from the usually impassive metal creation.

Loki walked to the door while watching Stark, he could hear a loud pounding coming from the inside of the Lab, though he could hear nothing else, nor see any cause for the pounding. When he stood in front of the door it opened automatically and he instantly cupped his ears at the loud sound that came from inside. He couldn't make out any words but he instantly noticed its rhythm and beat and decided it was some form of Midgardian music, horrible though it was.

He looked over to Stark and saw that he didn't notice his entrance and decided to just watch and learn. Stark seemed to be arguing with the bot holding the broom, which was now seemingly arguing back. Stark yelled at the Ceiling and then looked back to the bot in front of him. Loki thought maybe the bot was pleading it's case for whatever it had done; guessing by the mess on the floor, it had dropped and broke something. Suddenly, another taller robot(AI) came up from behind Stark and placed a long claw on the man's shoulder, distracting him from the other bot. It seemed to beeb and Stark's shoulders slumped and he sighed, obviously relenting to whatever the other bot had reasoned.

Then, to Loki's surprise and immense interest, Stark raised his left hand over the mess of broken glass and it raised from the ground. Stark directed it to a trash bin and sighed again, turning to the bot with the broom. Stark pointed a finger in the direction of what seemed to be a small kitchen and the bot lowered its head again and rolled away as Stark watched.

Loki eyes widened, amazed at the power the man had just shown. He had never seen such power of control over an object without the use of magic, and for all he knew, no one on Midgard could use magic. Whatever Stark had just done was against the norm and truly amazing. Without realizing it, Loki took a few steps forward, but stopped when the larger bot tapped Stark's shoulder again, more frantically than before and pointed in his direction. Stark froze and slowly turned toward him, his eyes also wide, but with emotions he never expected to see in the usually confident and poised man: Terror.

Suddenly the music stopped, but neither said anything. Stark seemed to be frozen in his fear and Loki was shocked by said fear. _What does he have to fear?_ Loki thought. Stark had the power to rule the world, yet he was frightened of him, something he hadn't even showed when he threw him from the building they stood in. _What could be causing this sudden bout of fear?_

"Stark-" Loki started but was cut off as Stark came out of stupor.

"How long have you been there?" Tony asked warily.

"...Long enough to know about your... power." Loki said slowly, trying not to frighten the man more.

"JARVIS!" Tony yelled, sounding slightly panicked and keeping his eyes trained on the God. "Un-mute!"

"_My apologies Sir._" JARVIS said instantly. "_You muted me when I tried to tell you Mr. Laufeyson was on his way down._"

"What about-" Tony started but the AI interrupted him.

"_In accordance to protocol Containment E7, I un-muted myself to try to warn you that Loki was already in the Lab, but you muted me again._" JARVIS told him, sounding grave. "_I was unable to un-mute myself in time to try again before you used your powers. I am sorry Sir._"

Stark stared at Loki, eyes widened in fear. Loki could easily guess that no one else knew of his power, protocol Containment E7 had obviously been a way to keep it a secret, but had failed. Realizing that the man wasn't terrified of him, but of what he now knew, Loki decided to placate the fear, not wanting to be kicked out of the tower and sent back to SHIELD.

"Stark, no need to be frightened, I can see this is supposed to be hidden." Loki said calmly, raising his hands in the inter-dimensional gesture for 'I'm harmless.' "I promise you, I wont tell anyone."

Stark kept staring a Loki, though now more warily than fearful. When he finally spoke, it was quiet and Loki strained to hear the man's words.

"Why would you keep it a secret?" Tony asked, seemingly confused and un-trustful.

"Why? I know when to keep something to myself." Loki nearly sneered. "Obviously you do not want the news of your... power to be known, and I do not wish to be kicked out of this tower and returned to that prison they call a room on that flying contraption because you are angry. Therefore I shall keep this news to myself."

"Black mail?" Tony asked raising an eyebrow.

"I did not think of it that way." Loki said with a thoughtful look. "But no, I am indebted too you to greatly to betray you. Even if you return me to the custody of those agents, I shall not tell."

Tony relaxed, not significantly, but enough to be noticed by Loki's sharp eyes. Loki smiled slightly and looked around the room. It was no longer noisy but the sound the machines made kept up a constant hum that filled the room and kept it from ever being silent. It was a relaxing hum of energy.

"What did you want Loki?" Tony asked sounding uneasy.

Loki turned back to Stark with curious look on his face.

"I was going to question you about the Tesseract." Loki said, and saw Stark raise his eyebrow.

"You were?" Tony asked, slipping on a mask of nonchalance that Loki easily saw though.

"I was, but now I plan to ask you about your power." Loki said and couldn't help but sigh when he noticed Stark tense up again. "Do not worry, I am merely curious. I knew the moment I met you in Germany that you were not like other Midgardians, but I could not tell how. Now I know how, but not the why."

"Curiosity killed the cat." Tony said curtly.

"Ah, but the cat has nine lives." Loki countered with a smirk. "Therefore the cat can be curious eight times."

Tony adopted a thinking look before he smiled slightly.

"That's... a good point." Tony said, seemingly to himself, then looked at Loki seriously. "You wont tell." Loki nodded. "Anyone, not even Thor."

"I shall promise on my magic that I shall tell no one unless you wish it." Loki said, placing a hand over his heart and bowing slightly, closing his eyes as his head dipped. "If I am to break this promise, let the power of my magic be sealed away for a millennia."

Loki heard Stark snort in amusement, though the man probably didn't realize that he had just promised him that if he did ever spill his secret, he'd loose his magic for an entire millennia. He stood straight and took a hesitantly tool a step forward.

"Come on, I'll tell you, but nothing leaves this room." Tony said. "And if you're wondering, Pepper. She's the only one in the tower who knows."

"Indicating that other's outside the tower know?" Loki asked.

Tony froze again, as if making up a decision, before his shoulders sagged once more.

"Yes, though you will probably never meet them." Tony said, walking over to a small couch in the corner of the lab and sitting down. "JARVIS, lock down the lab, tint the windows and make sure this floor is off limits to everyone but Pepper."

"_Of course Sir._" JARVIS replied.

Loki heard the door behind him lock and he turned, only to see the thick, clear windows darken until they were now opaque. Loki turned back to Stark and walked over grabbing a chair as he walked and sat across from the man.

"Go ahead, ask." Tony said, waving him on. "I'll answer some of your questions."

Loki grinned at the opportunity, he'd never let the man live this down. He had a chance to put the puzzle pieces together, though he doubted he'd find them all tonight, but he'd get a good look at the picture.

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**E/N~ So What'd You All Think? Good? I Didn't Got Off Topic To Much Right? I Sure Hope Not. **

**Anyway, I Can't Really Think Up Any Good Questions Loki Should Ask Him Besides Things Like 'You Are Not Normal, What Are You' & 'How Did You Get Your Power' & 'Why Do You Not Wish Others To Know?' OH & 'Why Keep The Tesseract.' That's All I Can Come Up With, So, If You HAve Any Good Questions Please Tell Me In A PM Or A Review(I'd Prefer Review, I Tend To Lose PMs Because I Get So Many). If You Have A Specific Question That You Want Answered With A Specific Answer, Just Tell Me & I'll See If It Works With What I'm Going For, Just Make It Appropriate For The Story & What's Happening. XD**

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**Anyway, No Spoiler Because I've Yet To Start Writing The Next Chapter, But BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Actually A HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!:**

**NEXT WEEK SCHOOL COLLEGE STARTS UP AGAIN AND I'LL BE REALLY BUSY. THIS SEMESTER I'M COMMUTING TO SCHOOL INSTEAD OF STAYING IN THE DORMS SO I'LL HAVE EVEN LESS TIME TO WRITE. PLEASE DON'T HATE ME! SCHOOL IS IMPORTANT! SO I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO UPDATE EVERY WEEK AS I REALLY NEED TO WORK HARD THIS SEMESTER. SO I'LL PROBABLY UPDATE EVERY OTHER WEEK OR WHEN EVER I GET A CHAPTER DONE. SO IT COULD BE A WEEK IF I GET INTO A WRITING ZONE, OR IT COULD BE 2 WEEKS IF I'VE GOT A LOT OF HOMEWORK. AGAIN SORRY ABOUT THIS, I FEEL PRETTY BAD, BUT I CAN'T JUST BE ALL 'YO SCHOOL, CAN YOU WAIT A FEW WEEKS TO START UP AGAIN, YOU'RE KILLING MY WRITING BUZZ.' IF ONLY RIGHT? So, Please Review & Take Pity On A Returning 3rd Yeah College Student. X3 **


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